LIBRARY  OF  THE  THEOLOGICAL  SEMINARY 

PRINCETON,  N.  J. 


Purchased  by  the  Hamill  Missionary  Fund. 


BV  2060  .L8  1922 
Love,  J.  F.  1859-1928. 
Missionary  messages 


MISSIONARY  MESSAGES 

Rev.  JAMES  F.  LOVE,  d.d. 


MISSIONARY 
MESSAGES  ^#vr.T'«T« 


BY 


V 

APR  15  1924 
A 


Rev.  JAMES  F.  LOVE,  d.d. 

CORRESPONDING    SECRETARY^   FOREIGN    MISSION    BOARD,   S.B.C, 

Author  of  "The  Unique  Message  and  Universal  Mission  of 

Christianity"  "The  Mission  of  Our  Nation/'  "The 

Union  Movement,"  "Spiritual  Farming,"  etc. 


NEW  ^IP  YORK 
GEORGE  H.  DORAN  COMPANY 


Copyright,  IQ22, 
By  George  H,  Doran  Companf 


MISSIONARY  MESSAGES.    II 
PRINTED  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES  OP  AMERICA 


To 

KATHARINE  STITH  LOVE 

AND 
ELIZABETH  SPEED  LOVE 
BY  THEIR  DEVOTED 
Father 


PREFACE 

As  indicated  by  the  title,  this  book  is,  for  the  most  part, 
composed  of  missionary  messages  which  have  been  deHv- 
ered  by  the  author  on  various  occasions.  They  are  issued 
in  the  present  form  for  the  single  purpose  that  they  were 
at  first  delivered  orally,  namely,  to  quicken  interest  in  For- 
eign Missions.  In  the  main  they  have  to  do  with  Foreign 
Missions  as  a  common  Christian  enterprise,  but  at  points 
they  deal  specifically  with  the  Baptist  foreign  mission  pro- 
gram. There  was  in  the  delivery  and  there  is  here  no  dis- 
position to  evade  the  distinctive  views  and  policies  which 
characterize  Southern  Baptists  and  control  their  foreign 
mission  work.  An  effort  has  been  made  to  state  the  de- 
nominational viewpoint  as  inoffensively  as  frankly,  and 
to  use  this  to  strengthen  the  foreign  mission  motive.  No 
man  ought  to  hold  a  religious  opinion  or  alliance  of  which 
he  is  ashamed.  Neither  should  one  state  his  personal  or 
denominational  views  in  irreligious  spirit  or  manner. 
Thoughtful  men  will  agree  that  the  only  certain  course  to 
better  understanding,  mutual  respect  and  concord  among 
the  Christian  forces  which  are  engaged  In  this  commanding 
world  enterprise  of  Foreign  Missions  is  for  each  group  to 
state  with  proper  Christian  decorum  those  views  and  prin- 
ciples which  it  holds  and  would  have  obtain  in  the  conduct 
of  the  work  and  thus  allow  others  to  examine  these  on  their 
merit.  Respect  of  one  Christian  denomination  for  another 
will  be  promoted  and  that  Christian  unity,  about  which  so 
much  is  said  in  foreign  mission  circles,  will  be  the  more  cer- 
tainly realized  by  clear  and  frank  confession  rather  than  by 
sentimental  slurring  of  the  comparatively  few  points  of  dif- 
ference between  the  evangelical  forces  of  Christendom. 
The  agitation  for  Christian  union  gathers  so  distinctly  about 

vii 


viii  PREFACE 

Foreign  Missions,  and  sentiment  hostile  to  denominational- 
ism  is  so  strong  in  foreign  mission  circles,  that  one  can 
scarcely  write  or  speak  on  certain  phases  of  Foreign  Mis- 
sions without  coming  upon  matters  at  issue.  While  there  is 
here  no  side-stepping  of  these  issues,  the  author's  desire  and 
hope  is  that  these  messages  shall  be  read  in  the  light  of  the 
missionary  purpose  which  produced  them  and  controls  their 
publication,  and  that  the  cause  for  which  they  plead  shall  be 
strengthened  in  the  consciences  of  the  home  constituency 
and  on  the  mission  fields. 

James  F.  Love. 
Richmond,  Va, 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I    The  Value  of  the  Missionary  Ideal  .       .  13 

II     The  Home  Base 25 

III  The  Baptist  Program  for  Europe        .        .  36 

IV  Baptist  Missions  in  the  New  World  Order  57 
V    Baptist  Women  in  the  Baptist  World  Pro- 
gram       72 

VI     Decisive  Hour  in  Baptist  Foreign  Missions  86 
VII     The  New  World  Conditions  and  Their  Sig- 
nificance      93 

VIII     The  Relation  of  the  Missionary  Message 

TO  Missionary  Success 108 

IX    The  Religion  of  the  Future  .       .       .       .117 
X    The  Uplifted  Ey2      .       .       .       .       .       .132 


MISSIONARY  MESSAGES 


MISSIONARY   MESSAGES 

CHAPTER  I 

THE  VALUE   OF  THE    MISSIONARY  IDEAL 

THE  Christian  calling  is,  in  brief  but  comprehensive 
statement,  the  execution  of  the  Great  Commission. 
Our  life-task  is  to  perform  the  duties  which  that  Commis- 
sion prescribes  and  to  tie  up  the  consciences  of  men  with 
the  authority  which  it  claims.  The  Commission  describes 
the  sphere  of  Christian  activity,  designates  Christian  duty 
and  presents  ample  opportunity  for  the  exercise  of  the 
highest  powers  and  the  fulfillment  of  the  largest  legitimate 
ambition  a  Christian  can  have.  It  requisitions  our  time, 
our  talent,  our  training,  our  wealth,  and  promises  profitable 
investment  for  them  all. 

The  modern  word  which  most  completely  embraces  the 
duties  set  forth  in  the  Commission  is  the  word  "missions." 
This  word  marks,  as  no  other  word  does,  the  central  thought 
and  whole  round  of  duties  prescribed.  Like  every  great 
idea,  missions  has  great  value  for  those  who  aspire  to  emi- 
nent lives  and  eminent  usefulness.  We  will  do  well  to  fix 
for  this  word  a  large  place  in  our  lives. 

Growing  perhaps  out  of  the  Roman  Catholic  use  of  the 
word  '^missions"  to  distinguish  ecclesiastical  sub-stations  in 
different  countries,  we  commonly  use  the  word  as  a  plural 
noun.  This  use,  I  think,  shunts  our  thinking  from  the 
essential  nature  of  missions  as  an  integral  part  of  Chris- 
tianity itself.  Mission  stations  are  incidents  in  the  mission- 
ary life  of  Christianity.  Missions  designates  the  genius, 
the  controlling  spirit  of  Christian  discipleship,  and  belongs 
to  the  elemental  Christian  moralities.     Missions  is  that  to 

13 


14  MISSIONARY  MESSAGES 

which  the  churches  have  been  commissioned,  the  Christian 
calling  and  occupation.  For  this  reason  J  prefer  to  use  the 
word  as  a  singular  noun.  I  am  here  talking  about  the  active 
translation  and  fulfillment  of  the  Commission,  the  very- 
spirit  and  behavior  of  obedient  discipleship.  A  man  can 
no  more  be  a  disciple  of  Christ  and  not  be  missionary  than 
he  can  be  a  Christian  and  not  be  truthful  or  honest. 

Missions  is  God's  plan  and  Jesus'  program  for  the  sal- 
vation of  the  world.  It  characterizes  the  spirit  and  volun- 
tary act  of  the  Saviour  himself,  explains  the  purpose  for 
which  the  Holy  Spirit  was  sent,  and  describes  the  scheme 
by  which  the  Kingdom  of  God  is  promoted  among  men. 
It  names  the  vocation  of  Christian  men  and  women,  the 
business  of  the  churches  for  which  the  Spirit  is  given  and 
the  conditions  on  which  the  presence  of  Christ  is  prom- 
ised. Into  this  word  and  enterprise  to  which  it  is  applied, 
flows  like  a  crystal  river  the  redemptive  purpose  of  God  for 
a  lost  world.  He  has  conditioned  the  salvation  of  the  world 
upon  the  obedience  of  his  disciples  to  the  Commission. 
Missions  is  vital  to  New  Testament  Christianity. 

I  am  aware  that  ignorant  and  stupid  men  sometimes  use 
words  of  which  they  do  not  know  the  meaning,  and  we 
excuse  them,  but  the  fact  is  there  is  no  rational  ground  on 
which  a  man  can  stand  and  claim  to  be  a  Christian  and 
disclaim  missionary  obligation  and  duty.  Men  may  be 
better  than  their  parrot  creeds,  but  Christ's  word  is,  "He  that 
gathereth  not  with  me  scattereth  abroad."  No  man  ever 
got  Christ  for  a  personal  Saviour  on  an  anti-mission  impor- 
tunity. He  who  says,  "Lord,  I  want  you  for  myself,  but  I 
will  not  share  you  with  another,"  goes  down  to  his  house 
unjustified.  The  Lord  does  not  start  into  our  lives  if  He 
is  forbidden  to  go  through  them  to  others. 

Again,  "missions"  is  more  than  is  indicated  by  any  adjec- 
tive which  we  may  use  to  designate  mission  work.  "City 
missions,"  "state  missions,"  "home  missions,"  and  even  "for- 
eign missions,"  while  indicating  important  aspects  of  our 
task,  instance  the  failure  of  the  adjective  to  do  compre- 
hensive service.    The  noun  is  the  important  and  significant 


THE  MISSIONARY  IDEAL  15 

word  in  each  case.  Foreign  mission  work  in  China,  for  in- 
stance, will  be  ''missions"  when  the  missionary  volunteer  gets 
to  it,  although  it  will  not  longer  be  "foreign  missions"  for 
him. 

Moreover,  missions  does  not  designate  a  certain  class  of 
Christian  service  as  distinct  and  separate  from  all  other 
Christian  activities.  Considered  from  the  viewpoint  of  the 
primary  and  paramount  task,  we  may  think  of  missions  as 
saving  lost  folks.  Whoever  leads  a  sinner  to  Christ  is  a 
missionary,  whether  it  be  done  by  one  who  goes  under  the 
Commission  to  Asia,  or  Africa,  or  a  mother  who  in  tender 
love  and  by  beautiful  life  turns  the  feet  of  her  own  child 
into  the  way  of  salvation.  Any  one  who  saves  a  soul  is 
a  missionary. 

But  the  Commission  does  not  limit  missions  to  the  saving 
of  souls.  Conversion  of  the  sinner  is  the  cataclysmic,  but 
it  is  not  the  climacteric  work  in  the  missionary  process. 
Set  this  work  to  the  front  and  magnify  it,  for  without  it 
all  else  that  we  do  comes  to  naught,  but  do  not  accept  a 
definition  of  missions  which  casts  a  shadow  on  other  parts 
of  the  task  by  which  we  translate,  expound,  and  execute 
the  Commission.  One  of  the  hopeful  things  attending  this 
missionary  era  is  that,  like  everything  which  has  in  it  the 
vitalities  of  our  Christianity,  missions  is,  in  practice,  a  grow- 
ing and  expanding  Christian  service.  With  our  growing 
fidelity  to  Christ  in  missionary  operations  we  are  expand- 
ing our  definition  of  missions.  Attempting  to  do  what  He 
commanded,  we  are  learning  to  do  what  He  did  and  all  that 
He  commanded.  Jesus  not  only  saved  men.  He  healed,  com- 
forted, instructed  and  encouraged  men  and  women.  All 
these  things  were  a  part  of  His  mission.  He  saved  the 
soul  and  then  sought  to  make  the  body  a  fit  dwelling  place 
for  it.  He  saved  men  and  women,  and  then  set  them  to 
making  the  world  a  suitable  and  congenial  place  for  saved 
men  and  women.  All  this  fell  within  the  scope  of  his 
ministry  and  falls  within  ours.  The  salvation  of  a 
man,  his  soul,  his  life,  his  talents,  his  powers,  his  posses- 
sions, and  the  bringing  of   all  these   under  the  benedic- 


i6  MISSIONARY  MESSAGES 

tion  and  proprietorship  of  Christ  is  contemplated  in  mis- 
sions. 

The  grasp  of  the  Commission  thus  comprehensively  is 
one  of  the  signs  of  growth  accompanying  the  missionary 
movement.  A  conscience  for  social  service  and  Christian 
stewardship  is  itself  a  product  and  expression  of  the  growing 
missionary  spirit.  We  have  begotten  a  conscience  for  these 
things  by  the  practice  of  obedience  to  Christ.  As  we  have 
tried  to  make  more  Christians,  we  have  been  learning  how 
to  make  better  Christians.  Committing  ourselves  to  the  task 
of  saving  men's  souls,  we  are  learning  how  to  save  their 
bodies  and  their  substance  from  the  service  and  dominion 
of  Satan.  Says  Prof.  Harnack,  'The  gospel  aims  at  found- 
ing a  community  among  men  as  wide  as  human  life  itself 
and  as  deep  as  human  need."  Social  work  is  not  a  gospel 
but  a  service  and  should  be  observed  as  a  duty  and  subor- 
dinated to  the  eternal  issue  of  saving  the  lost. 

There  is,  therefore,  a  mission  to  the  saved  as  well  as  a 
mission  of  the  saved.  "When  thou  art  converted,  strengthen 
thy  brethren"  is  an  ancient  missionary  admonition.  "Con- 
firming the  churches"  was  an  important  part  of  Paul's  mis- 
sionary labors.  We  are  not  only  to  increase  the  number 
of  believers,  but  the  value  and  efficiency  of  those  who  have 
been  converted  and  set  them  about  their  main  business. 
To  make  Christians  missionary  is  as  necessary  to  the  ful- 
fillment of  the  Commission  as  making  converts.  All  of  us, 
therefore, — teachers,  preachers,  Sunday  School  workers,  all, 

— can   participate   in   this   world-wide   enterprise,   and  be 
loyal  missionaries. 

Having  set  these  definitions  before  you,  I  shall  now  discuss 

the  value  of  the  missionary  ideal. 


I  will,  then,  first  discuss  the  value  of  the  missionary  ideal 
to  the  ministry. 

1.     The  missionary  ideal  will  enrich  the  minister's  senti- 
mental and  enlarge  his  mental  life.    In  the  study  of  missions 


THE  MISSIONARY  IDEAL  17 

he  will  find  opening  to  him  world  conditions  and  a  chal- 
lenge of  world  problems  and  world  needs  which  broaden  his 
thinking  and  deepen  his  feeling.  The  mind  of  a  preacher 
with  a  missionary  ideal  expands  in  the  effort  to  grasp  a 
vast  and  manifold  enterprise.  His  sympathies  are  enlarged 
as  he  discovers  human  need.  He  will  find  his  powers 
stretching  in  response  to  the  world  call.  Even  mediocre 
men  have,  under  the  spell  of  this  ideal,  become  world 
masters.  Carey  was  a  married  man  and  still  a  shoemaker 
at  his  bench  when  this  ideal  began  to  charm  and  master 
him.  The  Missionary  ideal  found  him  when  he  was  poor, 
ignorant,  obscure.  When  he  first  talked  of  the  missionary 
enterprise,  he  was  rebuked,  snubbed,  and  ridiculed  where 
he  was  not  ignored,  but,  after  he  had  been  transformed  by 
it,  he  was  "wined  and  dined"  by  lords  and  ladies.  Under 
the  spell  of  this  ideal  Mathew  T.  Yates,  a  Wake  County 
North  Carolina  clodhopper,  climbed  over  the  walls  of  severe 
limitation  and  led  the  hearts  of  Southern  Baptists  captive 
across  the  Pacific  Ocean,  and  in  the  midst  of  his  labors  and 
under  the  inspiration  of  this  ideal,  he  actually  grew  two 
inches  in  physical  stature  after  he  was  twenty-eight  years 
of  age.  Foreign  Missions  has  immortalized  hundreds  of 
men  and  women  as  it  has  vitalized  the  churches  of  Christ 
wherever  and  whenever  they  have  practiced  it. 

2.  The  missionary  ideal  gives  practical  value  to  the  min- 
ister's reading.  Preachers  learn  to  love  study.  How  much 
of  your  reading  helps  you  to  fulfill  the  Commission  ?  Some- 
thing you  must  read.  The  minister  will  either  read  and 
grow,  or  he  will  stunt  and  go.  The  people  will  not  long 
frequent  a  dry  well.  He  who  reads  will  either  select  his 
reading  with  discrimination  and  definite  purpose,  or  he 
will  dissipate  mental  energy  and  waste  precious  time.  The 
wise  minister  will  give  large  place  in  his  reading  to  that 
which  bears  upon  the  main  business  of  his  calling.  The 
missionary  ideal  will  create  an  interest  in  missionary  litera- 
ture. What  inspiration  there  is  in  the  lives  of  missionary 
heroes,  their  heroic  deeds,  sacrifices  and  achievements! 
These,   illuminated   in   the   best    Christian   biography,   will 


i8  MISSIONARY  MESSAGES 

provide  illustrative  material  for  sermons  and  addresses  v^hich 
will,  for  very  abundance,  embarrass  you,  and  such  illustra- 
tions will  bear  practically  upon  your  task.  Incidents  in  the 
lives  of  missionaries  and  of  their  converts  will  thrill  the 
preacher's  soul  and  set  his  ministry  on  fire.  There  is  much 
literature  prepared  for  preachers  that  is  fruitless  and  profit- 
less. I  have  a  volume  by  an  Andover  professor,  which  con- 
tains scholarship  that  it  would  take  three  score  and  ten 
years  to  acquire,  but  which  has  not  in  it  enough  Qiristian 
truth  or  sermon  suggestion  to  comp'ose  or  inspire  a  twenty 
minutes'  prayer  meeting  talk.  That  book  was  written  for 
preachers ! 

3.  The  missionary  ideal  will,  as  well  as  anything,  deter- 
mine the  spirit  and  the  virility  of  the  preacher's  ministry. 
It  will  keep  him  out  of  the  deep  ruts  which  homiletic  habits 
have  made,  and  out  of  which  many  times  the  preacher  has 
climbed  on  dusty  platitudes  while  the  people  have  groaned. 
The  world's  complaint  of  dry  orthodoxy  has  not  been 
p'rovoked  by  orthodoxy,  mind  you,  but  by  dry  orthodoxy. 
The  essential  gospel  of  evangelical  Christianity  is  the  juiciest, 
the  freshest,  the  most  appetizing,  and  the  most  refreshing 
doctrine  in  the  world.  Theology  is  made  fascinating  by  the 
missionary  spirit  in  the  preacher  and  its  missionary  appli- 
cation in  the  sermon.  The  preacher  with  the  missionary 
ideal  both  recites  and  demonstrates  that  the  gospel  is  the 
power  of  God.  The  missionary  preacher  deals  in  living 
truth  and  his  vital  message  vitalizes.  Missionary  incident 
tingles  with  human  interest. 

4.  The  preacher  with  the  missionary  ideal  will  select 
themes  which  have  missionary  value,  and  will  find  modern 
duty  in  old  texts.  This  will  increase  his  power.  Those  who 
accept  the  responsibility  of  going  into  all  the  world  under 
the  Commission  are  likely  to  find  themselves  under  neces- 
sity of  carrying  a  gospel  which  will  do  the  deed.  The 
missionary  ideal  will  do  more  to  eliminate  trivial  themes 
from  the  pulpit  than  anything  I  know.  A  British  war  cor- 
respondent says  that  one  effect  of  the  war  was  that  it  has 
"spoilt  the  people  for  little  themes  and  for  dilettante  preach- 


THE  MISSIONARY  IDEAL  19 

ments."  Face  to  face  with  spiritual  need  and  desperate 
human  situations,  preachers  would  not  discuss  "the  mod- 
em novel,"  nor  "evolution,"  nor  "Casey  at  the  bat,"  but 
would  be  driven  to  the  minister's  essential  message,  Christ 
crucified,  the  hope  and  immediate  help  of  the  man  who  wants 
him.  In  like  manner  the  man  who  gets  a  lost  world  on  his 
heart — gets  heathenism  with  its  ignorance,  superstition  and 
depravity,  the  papal  fields  with  ignorance  and  degradation — 
will  find  himself  harking  back  to  the  gospel  of  the  cross 
which  alone  can  regenerate,  transform  and  reinvigorate 
depleted  moral  manhood.  Thousands  of  sinners  at  home 
have  been  saved  by  the  preaching  of  a  gospel  which  was 
inspired  by  the  foreign  mission  ideal. 

5.  This  ideal  will  put  p'assion  into  your  ministry.  The 
world  does  not  like  cold  hash  served  at  eleven  o'clock  on 
Sunday.  The  minister  who  is  not  at  white  heat  in  his  quest 
for  souls  will  not  lure  them  to  the  mercy  seat.  The  preacher 
without  passion  is  the  preacher  without  power.  But  you 
will  not  give  your  life  unsparingly  to  proclaim  a  half  gospel 
nor  to  a  small  Christian  enterprise.  Only  little  men  have 
redhot  convictions  about  small  subjects.  It  takes  great 
matters  to  stir  as  it  takes  great  matters  to  make  great  souls. 
Burning  convictions  of  the  truth  and  a  great  task,  even  the 
needs  of  the  race,  beget  boiling  enthusiasm. 


II 
The  Value  of  the  Missionary  Ideal  to  a  Church 

The  missionary  ideal  has  great  value  for  a  church. 

1.  In  the  first  place  it  justifies  the  large  expenditure 
which  modern  churches  make  for  their  comfort,  convenience 
and  work.  We  hear  much  about  great  '^plants"  for  our 
churches.  Well,  certainly  a  great  plant  is  not  needed  if  a 
church  is  not  going  into  a  big  business  for  the  Lord.  Some 
churches  have  great  plants  which  seem  to  have  been  dedi- 
cated to  the  God  of  Comfort,  and  some  are  just  places 
provided  to  hold  audiences  for  preachers  to  preach  before. 


20  MISSIONARY  MESSAGES 

Shortly  before  Reginald  Campbell  left  the  City  Temple  for 
the  fold  of  the  Established  Church,  I  saw  a  report  of  the 
foreign  mission  offering  of  that  great  church  for  a  twelve 
months.  It  was  $50 !  A  certain  Baptist  church  in  America 
with  a  plant  costing  more  than  $500,000  gave  in  a  whole 
twelve-months  $250  to  foreign  missions,  and  enrolled  one 
hundred  in  its  Sunday  School!  A  church  does  not  need  a 
great  plant  for  such  small  business.  The  missionary  ideal 
is  what  that  church  needs. 

2.  The  missionary  ideal  sacredly  cherished  will  increase 
the  attendance  upon  the  ministry  of  any  man.  I  am  much 
among  the  churches,  and  I  have  not  found  in  all  the  rounds 
of  my  travel  a  missionary  pastor  and  a  missionary  church 
which  are  mourning  for  congregations.  Men  are  seeking 
opportunities  to  go  into  big  business.  There  is  fascination 
in  it.  The  preachers  and  churches  which  draw  the  masses 
are  missionary.  Billy  Sunday  said  that  the  non-church- 
going  members  belong  to  non-giving  churches. 

3.  The  missionary  ideal  will  insure  a  spiritual  church 
membership.  Men  and  women  dare  not  undertake  so  large 
a  task  as  world  conquest  for  Christ  without  much  crying  to 
God  in  prayer.  Human  inequality  to  the  great  task  begets 
a  craving  for  divine  help.  Companionship  and  power  begot- 
ten by  the  magnitude  of  this  task  steeps  the  soul  of  pastor 
and  people  in  spirituality  and  awakens  it  in  others.  When 
Andrew  Fuller  was  broken-hearted  over  the  dearth  of  con- 
versions in  his  church,  he  preached  three  successive  Sundays 
on  "The  duty  of  giving  the  gospel  to  the  heathen,"  and  a 
great  revival  broke  out  and  multitudes  turned  to  the  Saviour. 
Men  and  women  cannot  cultivate  worldliness  when  they  are 
bent  upon  bringing  the  world  to  Christ.  Worldliness 
and  waywardness  will  wither  in  the  presence  of  sanctified 
devotion  to  this  great  ideal,  selfishness  and  covetousness 
will  be  broken  up  and  the  idle  will  become  religiously  indus- 
trious. 

4.  The  missionary  ideal  is  a  cure  for  many  petty  ills  that 
afflict  the  churches  and  many  ministers.  Some  time  ago  a 
company  of  ministers  in  conference  were  hearing  first  from 


THE  MISSIONARY  IDEAL  21 

one,  then  another,  of  the  difficulties  they  encountered  in 
their  work.  A  dolorous  meeting  it  was  in  which  ministerial 
confidences  were  exchanged  concerning  pesky  deacons,  tat- 
tling women,  burdensome  debts,  the  frivolity  of  the  young, 
poor  congregations,  and  the  like.  An  old  minister,  who 
had  worn  his  life  out  in  missionary  effort,  arose  finally, 
and  in  a  trembling  but  thrilling  voice  said,  "Brethren,  raise 
a  larger  issue!"  and  sat  down.  Missions  is  that  larger 
issue,  and  it  will  cure  many  ills  which  afflict  the  churches  and 
discourage  the  preacher. 

5.  The  missionary  ideal  is  not  only  a  vitalizing  principle 
in  a  church  but  it  insures  scope  and  permanency  for  the 
preacher's  work.  We  have  had  much  talk  about  the  reflex 
influence  of  foreign  missions.  Let  me  give  you  an  example : 
The  ministry  of  Dr.  A.  J.  Gordon  of  Boston,  and  of  T. 
DeWitt  Talmadge  of  Brooklyn,  just  about  paralleled  each 
other,  and  covered  approximately  a  quarter  of  a  century. 
Dr.  Talmadge  with  his  extraordinary  popular  gifts  set 
himself  to  the  task  of  building  up  a  congregation  and  min- 
istering to  a  local  community.  He  would  build  up  a 
people's  church.  He  possessed  almost  incomparable  gifts 
for  such  achievement.  Devoting  himself  to  his  aim,  he  had 
little  to  do  with  the  missionary  enterprises  of  his  denom- 
ination. Dr.  Gordon,  on  the  other  hand,  set  for  himself  the 
task  of  building  a  church  through  which  to  give  the  gospel 
of  Christ  to  the  nations  of  the  world.  He  was  a  great 
foreign  mission  spirit.  The  end  of  their  respective  periods 
of  service  came  in  the  destruction  by  fire  of  Dr.  Talmadge's 
great  meetinghouse,  and  in  the  death  of  Dr.  Gordon.  The 
great  congregation  which  Dr.  Talmadge  had  built  about 
himself,  and  through  which  he  had  devoted  his  powers 
almost  exclusively  to  a  local  ministry,  did  not  have  vitality 
enough  to  build  another  place  of  worship  for  itself  and  the 
community.  Dr.  Talmadge  spent  the  remainder  of  his 
ministry  in  a  pulpit  in  Washington  City  supplanting  the 
old  pastor  who  had  by  enlisting  his  people  In  the  For- 
eign Mission  enterprise,  built  a  great  church.  Dr.  Gordon's 
church,  with  the  pastor  in  his  grave,  maintained  itself  for 


22  MISSIONARY  MESSAGES 

•continued  and  great  local  service,  while  keeping  up  foreign 
mission  contributions  at  the  rate  of  $20,000  a  year.  These 
two  pastorates  illustrate  a  great  truth  and  one  which  churches 
and  ministers  ought  not  to  miss.  The  great  churches  of 
the  South  and  their  pastors  illustrate  the  value  of  the  mis- 
sionary ideal  for  both  the  church  and  the  pastor.  Count 
them  over  and  the  truth  of  this  will  be  obvious. 


Ill 

The  Value  of  the  Missionary  Ideal  to  the  Denomination 

There  are  benefits  which  the  denomination  shares  when 
the  missionary  ideal  is  cultivated,  as  there  are  penalties 
which  it  must  inevitably  suffer  if  it  is  neglected. 

1.  In  the  first  place  the  missionary  ideal  will  insure 
the  principles  of  the  denomination.  There  is  no  way  to 
guarantee  the  propagation  and  preservation  of  denomina- 
tional principles  except  by  planting  them.  So  far  as  Bap- 
tists are  concerned  they  have  not  hedged  their  principles 
about  with  ecclesiastical  protection.  These  principles  can- 
not be  protected  by  defensive  tactics.  If  we  would  save 
ourselves  as  a  denomination,  we  must  save  others.  If  we 
would  save  our  principles,  we  must  sow  them.  The  heart 
which  the  gospel  regenerates  is  the  only  safe  keeping 
place  for  the  gospel.  Those  who  know  its  power  to  save, 
believe  it  too  precious  to  be  lost.  You  cannot  keep  the 
truth  pure  apart  from  the  missionary  use  of  it.  Personally, 
I  have  never  believed  that  musty  sermon  illustration  which 
recites  how  a  grain  of  wheat  had  been  found  in  an  Egyp- 
tian tomb,  where  wrapped  with  a  corpse  it  had  lain  for 
two  thousand  years,  and  unwrapped  and  planted,  it  sprouted 
and  grew  a  harvest.  That  is  both  unnatural  history  and 
unethical  illustration.  There  never  was  a  grain  of  wheat 
which  could  be  thus  preserved.  But  suppose  you  could 
preserve  a  grain  of  wheat  by  sealing  it  up  with  a  mummy, 
is  that  the  best  use  you  can  make  of  wheat?  A  grain  of 
wheat  planted  in  good  soil  two  thousand  years  ago  and 


THE  MISSIONARY  IDEAL  23 

its  natural  product  planted  through  the  successive  seasons, 
would  by  this  time  give  every  man,  woman,  and  child  in 
the  world  a  barrel  of  flour.  That  is  better  than  preserving 
one  grain  of  wheat.  It  is  true  of  the  gospel.  It  was  given 
not  to  be  hoarded  but  to  be  heralded.  Truth  is  prolific 
when  missionary  use  is  made  of  it. 


"Good  more  communicated,  more  abundant  grows, 
The  giver  not  impoverished  but  enriched  the  more." 

2.  The  missionary  ideal  gives  to  the  denomination  in- 
spirational history.  It  has  been  said  that  the  negro  race 
is  handicapped  by  the  fact  that  it  has  no  great  history,  and 
that  the  Indians  are  handicapped  in  that  they  have  no  future 
to  inspire  them.  Certainly  Baptists  have  a  history.  Along 
the  course  of  the  centuries  stand  out  great  granite  char- 
acters who  are  the  inspiration  of  all  who  read.  Who  can 
tell  how  much  the  denomination  has  been  enriched  by  such 
missionary  characters  as  Carey,  the  Judsons,  by  Yates, 
Graves  and  others?  But  we  are  not  living  in  the  past. 
I  heard  an  Oklahoman  say  that  *'Oklahomans  are  not  try- 
ing to  live  up  to  the  prestige  of  their  grandfathers,  but 
that  they  are  trying  to  make  prestige  for  their  grandchil- 
dren." It  is  our  business  to  make  inspiring  and  heroic 
characters  for  the  future.  By  the  cultivation  of  che  mis- 
sionary ideal,  the  denomination  will  make  heroes  who  shall 
inspire  our  people  to-morrow.  Theodore  Parker,  the  critic 
and  heretic  that  he  was,  said  that  if  the  missionary  enter- 
prise had  never  done  anything  but  make  Judson,  all  that 
had  been  put  into  it  would  be  justified. 

3.  Of  course,  there  is  no  other  way  for  us  to  increase 
our  numbers  than  by  the  cultivation  of  the  missionary  ideal. 
It  is  by  this  means  that  the  denomination  is  to  become  a 
real  world  power.  We  doom  ourselves  to  provincialism 
and  ultimate  obscurity  if  we  fail  to  extend  our  lines  to  the 
nations  and  make  converts  to  our  faith  everywhere.  We 
grow  only  as  we  go.  But  in  multiplying  our  numbers,  we 
shall  multiply  our  wealth,  our  strength  and  our  influence. 


24  MISSIONARY  MESSAGES 

Each  year  of  missionary  progress  marks  increased  mo- 
mentum for  the  enterprise. 

There  is  a  place  in  the  world  for  a  people  of  our  faith. 
The  world  needs  what  the  Baptists  have  to  give.  Whole 
nations  are  to-day  struggling  toward  the  light  and  seeking 
to  grasp  principles  which  Baptists  have  enunciated  more 
clearly  and  held  more  consistently  than  any  other  people. 
The  nations  want  and  need  these  principles,  and  their  want 
and  need  add  urgency  and  create  responsibility  for  Bap- 
tists in  the  execution  of  the  Commission  and  the  cultivation 
of  the  missionary  ideal. 

The  preacher,  the  church  and  the  denomination  will  find 
a  value  in  a  missionary  ideal  which  cannot  be  found  else- 
where. Without  this  ideal  and  the  benefits  which  it  confers, 
the  preacher  dooms  himself  to  mediocrity,  the  church  to 
a  famished  and  feeble  life,  and  the  denomination  to  an  in- 
glorious future. 


CHAPTER  II 

THE   HOME  BASE 


THE  home  base  of  foreign  missions  is  constituted  of 
the  individual  Christians,  the  churches,  the  Christian 
organizations,  the  material  resources  and  the  spiritual  assets 
of  our  home  Christianity  which  can  be  depended  on  for  the 
projection  of  the  missionary  enterprise  to  the  uttermost 
parts  of  the  earth.  The  base  is  strong  or  weak  in  propor- 
tion to  the  dependability  of  these  elements  in  the  Chris- 
tianity of  the  home  land  for  the  purposes  of  this  enterprise. 
The  home  task  of  the  foreign  mission  agencies  is  to 
strengthen  the  home  base  by  increasing  the  reliability  of 
these  elements.  It  is  the  necessary  expenditure  of  effort 
and  money  upon  this  part  of  the  foreign  mission  task  that 
constitutes  much  the  larger  part  of  the  expense  of  foreign 
mission  administration.  The  actual  expenses  of  the  purely 
foreign  mission  administration  is  a  comparatively  small 
part  of  the  foreign  board's  expenditure  of  money.  The 
larger  cost  of  administration  is  that  which  is  necessary  in 
order  to  create  and  keep  up  a  reliable  home  base.  Con- 
sidering the  circumstances,  this  is  money  well  spent,  but, 
if  giving  to  foreign  missions  were  more  voluntary,  there 
could  be  a  great  saving  in  expense.  If  evangelical  Chris- 
tianity's present  resources  were  wholly  and  immediately 
available,  we  could  probably,  under  present  world  conditions, 
and  in  the  face  of  the  opportunity  now  presented  in  the 
mission  fields,  in  one  generation,  duplicate  on  the  foreign 
field  the  total  church  membership  of  the  home  churches 
without  increasing  the  cost  of  administration.  We  would 
thus  have  constituted  a  double  base  from  which  the  ad- 
vancing lines   of   missionary  conquest  could  converge  on 

25 


26  MISSIONARY  MESSAGES 

the  diminishing  heathenism  and  soon  take  our  positions 
for  the  final  siege. 

Christianity's  holdings  here  ought  to  represent  the 
strength  of  its  foreign  mission  base.  But,  alas !  such  is  not 
the  case.  Many  of  our  churches  give  nothing  even  of 
material  support  to  this  enterprise;  many  of  the  members 
of  those  churches  which  report  contributions  give  nothing; 
and  probably  one-half  of  those  members  who  give  do  not 
give  half  as  much  as  they  ought  to  give  for  a  cause  so 
commanding  as  foreign  missions.  The  Home  Base  Com- 
mission of  the  Edinburgh  Conference,  after  canvassing 
a  mass  of  data,  records  this  conclusion:  "It  is  probably 
well  within  the  truth  to  say  that  nine-tenths  of  the  funds 
raised  in  the  United  States  for  foreign  missions  are  con- 
tributed by  one-tenth  of  the  members  of  the  Protestant 
bodies,  the  remaining  nine-tenths  of  the  members  giving 
the  other  tenth.  This  statement  is  accepted  as  true  by 
several  of  the  leading  denominations."  The  case  is  not 
now  as  bad  as  that  among  Baptists,  but  there  are  still  many 
delinquent  churches  and  church  members. 

With  such  defects  in  the  home  base  threatening  the  success 
of  the  whole  enterprise,  there  is  no  higher  order  of  mission- 
ary service  or  campaign  strategy  than  this  of  more  thor- 
oughly constituting  this  base.  This  work  has  its  difficulties 
no  less  formidable  than  those  which  confront  us  on  the  for- 
eign field,  and  to  overcome  them,  labor,  money,  courage,  and 
patience  will  be  required.  Who  among  us  has  realized  the 
vast  areas  of  our  American  Christianity  which  are  yet 
uncultivated  and  fruitless?  Millions  are  to-day  starving 
for  the  Bread  of  Life,  while  vast  and  productive  sections 
of  the  home  field  yield  not  a  loaf  to  stay  their  consuming 
hunger.  Many  strong  churches  and  more  capable  indi- 
viduals stretch  forth  no  hand  of  relief.  Our  churches 
represent  potential  missionary  resources  which  are  unde- 
veloped while  missionary  triumphs  are  shortened  for  the 
lack  of  adequate  supplies.  To  render  this  fertile  field 
fruitful  of  foreign  mission  resources  there  is  demand  for 
an  order  of  work  which  is  hard  and  expensive.    It  is  of  the 


THE  HOME  BASE  27 

nature  of  digging  the  stumps  and  ditches  and  of  long  and 
faithful  cultivation  of  the  soil  before  the  harvest  can  be 
realized.  Many  roots  of  prejudice  must  be  cast  out,  some 
natures  must  be  plowed  deep,  the  mellowing,  softening 
showers  of  grace  must  be  invoked  and  the  fertilizing  meth- 
ods of  New  Testament  teaching  and  missionary  instruction 
must  be  used.  What  a  task!  And  yet  how  abundantly 
worth  while!  It  is  as  important  to  the  foreign  mission 
enterprise  to  make  a  reliable  home  base  as  it  is  to  press 
the  campaign  itself.  It  would  be  a  waste  and  cause  hurtful 
reaction  to  put  all  the  effort  in  the  campaign  abroad  and 
neglect  the  matter  of  strengthening  sentiment,  enlisting 
support  and  assembling  resources  at  home.  Undeveloped 
and  stingy  church  members  more  than  the  alleged  extrava- 
gance of  mission  boards  are  the  cause  of  unnecessary  ad- 
ministrative expense. 


II 

We  have  in  America  a  potential  home  base  for  evan- 
gelical Christianity. 

1.  We  have  a  potential  racial  element  in  our  Ameri- 
can home  base.  The  Anglo-Saxon  man  is  constitutionally 
aggressive,  pioneering,  adventurous.  He  experiments,  in- 
vents, discovers,  colonizes,  civilizes,  educates.  He  has  set 
forward  the  frontiers  of  commerce,  material  comfort, 
moral  reform  and  social  order  in  a  manner  which  distin- 
guishes and  immortalizes  him.  Apply  to  the  Anglo-Saxon 
nature  the  experience,  the  heightening  of  power,  the  vis- 
ion and  the  propulsion  of  evangelical  Christian  faith,  and 
then  arouse  in  him  a  normal  missionary  passion,  and  his 
spiritual  ventures  will  know  no  bounds;  he  will  have  no 
rivals.  The  American  is  the  freest,  the  boldest,  the  most 
daring  type  of  the  Anglo-Saxon.  When  evangelical  faith 
is  fully  purified  and  missionary  zeal  is  fully  aroused  among 
American  Christians,  they  will  constitute  such  a  human 
base  for  the  missionary  enterprise  as  it  has  never  had  in 
any  land  or  age.    From  American  schools  must  come  those 


28  MISSIONARY  MESSAGES 

who  shall  carry  evangelical  Christianity  to  the  ends  of  the 
earth. 

2.  We  have  here  the  possibility  of  such  a  material  base 
as  evangelical  Christianity  has  never  had,  and  probably 
can  not  have  in  any  other  land  from  which  this  Christianity 
is  projected.  The  per  capita  wealth  and  the  per  capita 
wage  of  the  evangelical  church-member  in  America  is  un- 
equaled  by  those  of  the  devotee  of  any  religion  outside  of 
America.  If  we  could  witness  an  increase  of  material 
resources  for  the  missionary  enterprise  commensurate  with 
the  accumulation  of  American  fortunes,  we  could  finance 
the  enterprise  as  easily  as  we  build  railroads,  and  on  a 
scale  of  equal  magnitude.  We  have  marvelous  possibilities 
for  a  great  home  base  in  the  wealth  of  our  land,  and  we 
are  challenged  by  missionary  opportunity  and  need  to 
make  our  Christian  men  of  wealth  see  that  this  enterprise 
has  the  first  and  the  largest  claim  upon  their  benevolences. 
Foreign  missions  is  the  fundamental  and  productive  Chris- 
tian enterprise.  Millions  put  into  libraries,  museums,  art 
galleries  and  the  like  for  the  advancement  of  civilization 
is  like  spraying  the  fruit  compared  with  the  horticultural 
work  and  care  in  producing  it.  Books  and  art  and  other 
aesthetic  agencies  are  themselves  the  products  of  Christianity, 
and  the  man  who  would  give  his  f  ellowmen  the  benefits  of 
these  can  do  it  in  larger  measure  by  giving  them  the  gospel. 
The  nations  to  whom  we  give  the  gospel  will  get  and  pro- 
duce their  own  arts.  Many  of  the  nations  which  present 
needy  foreign  missionary  fields  have  glorious  art,  but  it 
has  left  them  in  moral  decay.  Our  larger  gifts,  therefore, 
should  go  to  this  primary  and  productive  work.  More  and 
more  churches  and  Christian  leaders  should  seek  to  com- 
mand for  this  cause  the  unequaled  wealth  of  American 
Christians.  We  have  scarcely  tapped  the  possible  resources 
already  in  the  hands  of  American  Christians. 

3.  We  have  in  our  American  church  membership  the 
material  for  a  great  numerical  base.  There  are  25,000,- 
000  church  members  in  the  United  States,  or  one  in  four  of 
the  whole  population  including  men,  women,  children  and 


THE  HOME  BASE  29 

babies.  What  an  army  to  support  and  conduct  our  Qiris- 
tian  campaign  if  only  all  were,  as  their  profession  implies, 
really  under  orders !  If  the  foreign  mission  enterprise  has 
reached  its  present  proportions  with  such  fractional  sup- 
port as  it  has  received,  what  are  the  possibilities  for  it 
if  these  millions  of  church  members  with  all  they  possess 
and  command  could  be  relied  upon.  Professor  Thomas 
C.  Johnson  has  said  truly,  "In  ordering  the  constitution 
of  the  church  God  made  a  missionary  society;  every  mem- 
ber of  the  church  by  virtue  of  his  church  membership  is 
a  member  of  this  missionary  society  and  stands  pledged 
to  do  his  utmost  as  such.  The  obligation  therefore  to  fulfill 
this  pledge  is  imperative  and  inclusive."  The  anti-mis- 
sionary or  the  o-missionary  individual  who  defends  church 
sovereignty  is  a  heretic  after  the  last  commandment  of 
our  Lord.  The  only  serious  indictment  that  can  be  brought 
against  orthodoxy  as  a  force  in  missions  is  that  its  evan- 
gelistic products  can  not  uniformly  be  relied  upon  as  mis- 
sionary factors.  To  this  incongruity  the  defenders  of  the 
faith  must  address  themselves,  and  when  it  is  removed, 
evangelical  Christianity  will  vindicate  itself  in  triumphant 
missionary  achievement.  This  defect  is  the  weak  place  in 
the  home  base  at  present  and  the  chief  cause  of  embar- 
rassment to  the  missionary  enterprise.  The  statistical  table 
in  the  associational  minute  is  a  good  index  to  the  soundness 
and  sincerity  of  the  faith  of  the  churches. 

4.  America  presents  unique  possibilities  for  a  home 
base  in  its  potential  missionary  message.  The  primary 
reason  for  going  on  a  mission  to  the  non-Christian  nations 
is  found  in  the  message  which  was  given  us  to  carry  to 
them,  and  this  message  is  an  indispensable  equipment  for 
missionary  service.  All  the  sending  and  all  the  going  is 
for  the  purpose  of  carrying  this  message.  The  man  or  group 
of  men  who  are  without  this  message  are  without  a  mission. 
Responsibility  for  the  missionary  enterprise  rests  upon  those 
who  have  a  gospel  to  propagate.  A  profession  of  evan- 
gelical orthodoxy  is  an  acknowledgment  of  the  most  bind- 
ing missionary  obligation.     It  is  in  this  fact  that  America 


30  MISSIONARY  MESSAGES 

should  constitute  the  strongest  base  for  evangelical  foreign 
missions.  Not  only  does  a  larger  number  of  our  people 
hold  this  faith  by  a  voluntary  choice,  but  evangelical  Chris- 
tian faith  has  here  fewer  handicaps,  and  is  freer  from 
diluting  elements  than  in  any  other  land  of  the  globe.  There 
can  not  be  found  in  any  other  land  an  equal  number  of 
men  and  women  who  believe  with  the  same  confidence  that 
American  Christians  believe  in  the  unique  inspiration  of 
the  Scriptures,  the  miraculous  birth,  the  deity  and  the 
vicarious  atonement  of  Christ,  the  reality  of  the  new  birth 
and  the  continuity  of  moral  law  throughout  the  whole 
career  of  the  soul  in  two  worlds.  This  faith  constitutes  a 
potential  missionary  message,  and  creates  peculiar  mis- 
sionary obligation.  This  truth  ought  to  be  brought  home  to 
American  Christians  until  all  orthodoxy  becomes  a  reliable 
part  of  the  home  base,  and  by  such  augmentation  of  re- 
sources, the  campaign  is  strengthened  to  the  uttermost 
outpost. 

5.  Evangelical  Christianity  has  in  America  a  strate- 
gical position  for  a  home  base.  We  hold  here  a  continent 
of  marvelous  resources,  which  lies  peacefully  between  the 
world's  two  great  oceans,  the  turbulent  nations,  and  be- 
tween the  corroding  Christianity  of  Europe  and  the  virgin 
mission  fields  of  the  East.  Our  isolation  is  great  enough 
to  insure  the  national  type  and  yet  we  hold  a  position  favor- 
able to  service  for  other  nations.  In  security,  serenity  and 
high  self -containment  we  look  upon  the  world's  tumult 
and  need  with  collected  wits  and  the  bounties  of  nature  and 
of  grace  at  our  disposal.  From  such  a  base  we  can  dis- 
pense our  gospel  treasures  if  we  have  the  heart  to  do  it. 


Ill 

The  fact  that  we  have  in  America  a  potential  base  of 
such  significance,  and  that  circumstances  conspire  to  render 
the  foreign  mission  campaign  so  largely  dependent  upon 
this  base,  suggest  that  the  strengthening  of  this  base  is  a 
foreign  mission  work  of  high  rank,    ^^hatever  is  essential 


THE  HOME  BASE  31 

to  the  enterprise  is  an  important  part  of  it.  There  is  noth- 
ing connected  with  this  world  enterprise  more  important 
than  the  work  of  completing  the  task  of  converting  some 
twenty-five  million  Christians  in  the  evangelical  churches 
of  America  into  reliable  foreign  mission  assets.  What  then 
are  some  of  the  things  to  be  done  and  points  to  be  guarded 
in  order  that  we  may  render  the  home  base  adequate  and 
reliable  for  an  expanding  and  winning  campaign? 

1.  The  task  demands,  of  course,  a  high  order  of  con- 
structive Christian  and  missionary  statesmanship.  Sanity, 
tactfulness  and  courage  are  indispensable  qualifications  in 
those  who  are  to  enlist,  train  and  lead  these  hosts  in  a 
mighty  campaign  which  shall  carry  this  holy  war  to  victory. 
Mr.  John  R.  Mott  in  his  'The  Present  World  Situation" 
quotes  the  London  Spectator  to  the  effect  that  there  is  "one 
feature  in  the  present  aspect  of  the  world  which  is  most 
unusual,  and  that  is  the  contrast  between  the  magnitude  of 
events  occurring  around  us  and  the  smallness,  or  rather, 
the  second-rateness  of  the  men  supposed  to  guide  them." 
Mr.  Mott  elaborates  that  statement  and  applies  it  to  the 
missionary  leadership  which  deals  with  the  many  problems 
on  the  foreign  field.  But  the  home  base  also  has  its  prob- 
lems which  make  demands  for  statesmanship  on  the  part 
of  pastors  and  other  leaders  whose  task  it  is  to  increase  its 
efficiency.  To  shape  the  situation  at  home,  there  is  need 
of  men  who  love  the  cause  above  all  personal  whims  and 
personal  ambitions,  men  of  unconquerable  and  genuine 
missionary  passion,  and  who  in  singleness  of  eye  for  the 
cause  will  neither  play  to  lower  nor  upper  galleries.  The 
need  is  for  missionary  statesmen  versus  the  official  com- 
mander, versus  the  politician,  versus  the  demagogue.  All 
these  have  afflicted  the  missionary  cause  at  one  time  or 
another  in  one  place  or  another.  We  cannot  back  an  im- 
perialistic program  such  as  is  outlined  in  the  Commission 
without  resources  of  wisdom  and  consecrated  diplomacy. 
American  Baptists  have  had  men  who  exemplified  these 
elements  of  leadership.  They  still  need  such  men.  The 
magnitude  of  the  task,  the  proportion  to  which  our  mis- 


32  MISSIONARY  MESSAGES 

sionary  operations  have  grown,  the  number  and  personnel 
of  the  forces  to  be  led,  enlisting,  training,  developing,  and 
leading  these  home  forces;  and  the  varied  problems  to  be 
solved,  including  as  they  do  financing  the  work,  economy 
of  administration,  unity  of  the  forces,  the  conservation  of 
denominational  integrity,  questions  of  Christian  comity,  and 
many  others,  call  for  men  with  more  than  new  eras  in  their 
purpose  and  empires  in  their  brain. 

There  must  be  a  more  comprehensive  grasp  of  the  home 
situation  and  a  more  minute  appHcation  of  attention  to  the 
matters  which  affect  the  efficiency  and  reliability  of  the 
base.  There  are  magnitudes  in  the  problem  of  the  home 
base;  there  are  millions  of  individuals  scattered  over  the 
continent  to  be  incorporated  into  the  supporting  forces  of 
the  enterprise.  It  is  not  an  easy  mental  feat  to  grasp  a 
million  units,  but  it  is  even  more  difficult  when  the  figures 
stand  for  so  many  individual,  independent  Baptists  of 
varying  mind,  holding  membership  in  independent  church 
groups  more  or  less  loosely  related,  distributed  in  two  gen- 
eral conventions,  some  fifty  state  organizations  and  nearly 
fifteen  hundred  district  associations.  To  put  in  operation 
plans  which  will  after  a  while  reach  every  one  of  these  indi- 
vidual Baptists  and  each  unit  of  organization,  and  build 
up  out  of  them  a  home  base  in  which  every  part  shall  be 
dependable  and  contribute  relatively  its  maximum  of  strength 
to  the  whole,  is  a  mission  challenge  to  thoughtful  men 
among  us. 

Such  a  scheme  of  base  building  must  be  projected  and 
worked  as  will  insure  a  definite  utilization  of  every  unit  in 
the  home  Christianity  and  organization  for  the  specific  sup- 
port of  the  foreign  mission  enterprise ;  and  the  work  which 
accomplishes  this  must  proceed  so  orderly  and  intelligently 
that  we  may  know  what  progress  has  been  made,  and  what 
at  any  time  remains  to  be  done.  Haphazard  effort  may  get 
helpful  results  in  particular  instances,  but  can  never  build 
up  a  base  strong  at  every  point  and  affording  a  constant 
reliable  support  to  the  great  enterprise;  and  the  enterprise 
itself  can  not  be  projected  with  confidence  and  steady  cour- 


THE  HOME  BASE  33 

age  so  long  as  home  support  fluctuates  and  is  uncertain. 
2.  This  is  axiomatical ;  but  what  is  the  remedy  which 
skill  must  apply?  Are  there  any  guiding  principles  for 
the  construction  of  a  reliable  home  base  and  the  provision 
of  steady  supplies  for  the  campaign?  It  should  have  oc- 
curred to  us  long  ago  that  the  Scriptures  contain  some 
specifications  for  base  building,  and  for  the  relief  of  the 
chief  embarrassment  which  has  confused  the  enterprise. 
As  a  matter  of  fact  the  Commission  which  orders  the  cam- 
paign, and  the  inspired  history  of  its  early  triumphs,  con- 
tain specifications  which  cover  our  baffling  difficulty.  The 
Commission  enjoins  a  message  in  the  words,  "Preach  the 
gospel  to  every  creature,"  and  it  prescribes  a  missionary 
duty  for  those  who  believe  in  the  words,  "Teaching  them  to 
observe  all  things  whatsoever  I  have  commanded  you." 
Doubtless  these  words  include  the  duty  of  teaching  con- 
verts a  proper  observance  of  the  ordinances  and  the  close 
guarding^  of  the  gospel  message,  but  they  include  more  than 
this.  This  Commission  is  first  of  all,  and  most  of  all,  a 
missionary  edict,  and  the  words  hint  at  the  method.  The 
teaching  here  is  not  intellectual,  theoretic,  cultural;  it  is 
practical.  Preachers  are  commanded  to  instruct  their  con- 
verts in  hozi'  to  do  the  thing  which  the  Commission  com- 
mands. They  must,  of  course,  apply  the  best  mission  mo- 
tives, but  they  must  also  apply  the  best  mission  methods. 
This  task  with  the  converts  is  not  finished  until  these  are 
engaged  in  "doing  the  truth"  and  in  observing  the  best  way 
of  promoting  it.  A  Scriptural  method  of  church  finance 
sustains  an  essential  relation  to  this  work  of  "teaching  them 
to  observe  all  things."  Individual  stewardship,  systematic, 
regular,  proportionate  giving  are  observances  which  are 
vital  to  the  execution  of  the  Commission,  and  failure  to 
teach  the  Scriptural  observance  here  has  probably  cost  the 
missionary  cause  as  serious  shortening  of  its  victories  as 
any  dereliction  of  which  Christian  leaders  are  guilty.  Care- 
lessness and  indifiPerence  to  a  matter  so  vital  to  the  scheme 
of  world  evangelization  is  to  be  classed  with  irregularity 
concerning  one  of  the  ordinances  or  other  observance  speci- 


34  MISSIONARY  MESSAGES 

fied  by  the  Scriptures.  The  efficiency  of  the  home  base 
demands  that  a  thoroughly  comprehensive  plan  shall  be 
executed  to  place  every  church  member  on  the  list  of  regular, 
systematic,  proportionte  givers,  and  that  this  plan  shall  be 
worked  so  orderly  that  the  results  may  at  any  time  be 
checked  up,  and  the  remaining  task  distinctly  located.  This 
work  is  in  progress  and  already  gratifying  results  have  been 
secured.  It  must  be  continued  with  increased  vigor  and 
orderliness. 

3.  To  increase  the  efficiency  of  the  home  base  the  chan- 
nels of  approach  to  the  churches,  even  the  feeblest  and 
remotest,  must  be  kept  open  for  the  general  mission  agencies. 
This  is  not  only  essential  to  the  life  of  the  agencies  them- 
selves, but  to  the  missionary  life  of  the  churches  at  home. 
These  open  channels  afford  opportunity  for  constant  mis- 
sionary revitalization  of  the  home  base.  The  general  mis- 
sion board  is  a  purveyor  of  ideas  and  ideals ;  it  kindles  mis- 
sionary passion,  expands  vision  and  creates  a  missionary  at- 
mosphere ;  it  garners  and  imparts  information,  fosters  large 
view  and  familiarizes  the  churches  with  a  great  program; 
it  excites  co-operative  sympathy  and  stimulates  a  conscious- 
ness of  denominational  power.  These  things  are  possible 
through  the  literature  of  the  Board,  correspondence,  personal 
visits  of  representatives,  etc.  By  such  means  the  general 
agencies  are  penetrating  the  masses  who  compose,  or  ought 
to  compose,  the  home  base,  and  imparting  inspiration  and  a 
missionary  mind  and  impulse  to  those  who  are  providen- 
tially confined  to  isolated  districts  and  have  little  oppor- 
tunity to  touch  or  be  touched  by  the  great  currents  of  mod- 
ern religious  thought  and  life.  While  the  boards  draw  from 
the  people  and  bear  their  gifts  to  sections  of  need  to  which 
they  are  consigned,  they  ought  also  to  be  charged  with  the 
duty  of  giving  back  to  the  churches  information  and  inspi- 
ration gathered  through  opportunity  for  larger  outlook,  in 
order  that  the  lives  of  our  people  may  be  enriched  and  their 
missionary  life  fed.  This  form  of  work  is  essential  to  the 
efficiency  of  the  home  base,  and  it  can  not  be  done  by  any 
one  of  the  more  local  agencies  in  the  home  organization 


THE  HOME  BASE  35 

alone.  The  churches  ought  to  be  open  to  all  denominational 
agencies.  Those  which  have  been  given  an  opportunity  to 
collect  information  and  are  inflamed  with  zeal  for  a  given 
enterprise  ought  to  be  given  the  opportunity  to  tell  what 
they  know  and  feel.  The  mission  board  in  its  proper  func- 
tion is  not  so  much  a  getter  of  money  as  a  begetter  of  mis- 
sionary inteUigence,  purpose,  and  passion. 

4.  Given  information  about  the  great  causes  and  proper 
motives  for  their  support,  we  ought  to  trust  the  individual 
conscience  to  give  discriminatingly.  The  ideal  giver  is  a 
Christian  who  knows  and  feels  the  claim  of  the  respective 
objects  which  have  a  right  to  appeal  to  his  benevolence,  and 
whose  conscience  acts  automatically,  that  is,  from  the  in- 
herent force  of  knowledge  and  love  within  him,  and  not 
under  the  mechanical  manipulation  of  some  one  whose  in- 
terest it  is  to  boost  a  certain  job.  Until  our  people  are 
informed  concerning  the  respective  claims  of  the  great  Chris- 
tian enterprises,  they  are  liable  to  become  the  victims  of 
the  manipulator,  sometimes  self-appointed,  and  make  dis- 
proportionate gifts  to  subordinate  objects. 

The  Spirit  of  Christ,  who  administers  missions,  should 
be  so  palpable  in  the  home  constituency  that  missions 
would  become  the  normal  Christian  activity.  A  Christian 
ought  to  have  as  restless  a  passion  for  lost  nations  as  a  lost 
man  has  for  the  Saviour  when  the  Spirit  has  convinced 
him  of  sin.  The  effort  to  produce  such  a  Christian  life  at 
home  is  a  necessary  part  of  the  work  which  has  for  its 
end  the  making  of  Christians  abroad.  When  eight  million 
Baptists  in  America  are  enlightened,  enlisted,  and  their  per- 
sonal powers  and  possessions  are  made  the  assets  of  the 
foreign  mission  enterprise,  we  shall  have  a  home  base  which 
will  support  our  advancing  lines  until  we  have  carried  the 
gospel  of  Christ  into  all  lands  and  the  signs  of  final  victory 
appear. 


CHAPTER  III 

THE  BAPTIST  PROGRAM  FOR  EUROPE  * 
I 

'A  Word  about  the  Origin  of  the  London  Conference 

IN  the  spring  of  1919  the  Foreign  Mission  Board  carried 
up  to  the  Southern  Baptist  Convention  which  met  in 
Atlanta,   Georgia,  the   following  inquiry: 

"This  convention  should  face  with  courage  the  ques- 
tion of  its  obligation  to  take  some  part  in  the  religious  re- 
construction of  Europe.  The  need  there  is  too  great,  and 
Southern  Baptist  obligation  is  too  apparent  for  this  body- 
to  ignore  them.  According  to  the  best  psychology  of  the 
situation,  there  is  thought  to  be  opportunity  in  Europe  for 
a  genuine  and  radical  transformation  of  the  whole  religious 
situation  if  evangelical  Christianity  will  enter  quickly  doors 
of  opportunity  which  the  guns  of  war  have  jarred  open. 
Shall  your  Foreign  Mission  Board  set  itself  to  the  task  of 
entering  these  doors  and  exercising  a  spiritual  ministry  to 
the  torn  and  agitated  hearts  of  men  and  women  in  France, 
Belgium,  and  elsewhere,  as  God's  Spirit  shall  lead?" 

To  the  above  inquiry  the  Convention  made  reply : 

"With  respect  to  our  'obligation  to  take  some  part  in  the 
religious  reconstruction  of  Europe,'  that  we  do  most  heartily 
desire  the  Board  to  take  steps  as  speedily  as  circumstances 
make  possible  to  ascertain  fully  the  situation  and  how  we 
can  best  meet  our  duty  in  regard  to  it.    Adopting  the  lan- 

*  This  address  delivered  before  the  South  Carolina  Baptist  State 
Convention  was  published  by  order  of  that  body,  but  because  of  the 
historic  significance  of  the  meeting  to  which  it  refers,  it  is  thought 
proper  to  include  it  in  these  Messages  and  thus  preserve  it  in  more 
permanent   form. 

36 


EUROPEAN  PROGRAM  37 

guage  of  their  inquiry,  we  do  'instruct  our  Foreign  Mission 
Board  carefully  to  spy  out  the  land  and,  when  the  engineer- 
ing corps  have  made  their  report,  to  go  up  and  possess  it.' 
To  this  end  we  authorize  our  Board  to  expend  whatever 
funds  are  necessary  to  the  full  information  needed  for  most 
wisely  doing  our  part  in  Europe  and  the  rest  of  Russia. 
We  hope  that  by  another  year  we  shall  already  be  in  such 
of  these  countries  as  God's  Spirit  shall  indicate,  by  the 
results  of  the  proposed  investigation,  that  He  desires  us  to 
occupy." 

Following  the  Atlanta  Convention  and  in  the  summer 
of  1919,  Dr.  Z,  T.  Cody  and  I  were  appointed  by  the  For- 
eign Mission  Board  to  make  a  Missionary  and  Reconstruc- 
tion Survey  of  Europe  and  the  Near  East.  On  this  trip 
we  were  accompanied  by  Dr.  Everett  Gill,  then  a  missionary 
of  the  Foreign  Mission  Board  in  Italy  but  temporarily  in  the 
homeland.  Upon  our  arrival  in  London  it  was  agreed  with 
the  Baptist  leaders  there  that,  upon  finishing  the  tour  and 
survey,  the  Commission  would  return  to  London  and  report 
conditions,  observations  and  conclusions.  We  arrived  in 
London  on  the  return  trip  from  the  Continent  and  the  Near 
East  the  last  of  January,  1920,  and  made  our  report.  Among 
other  things,  the  Commission  suggested  that  it  would  not 
be  practicable,  in  the  face  of  conditions  on  the  Continent, 
to  hold  a  Baptist  World  Alliance  in  Prague  during  the 
summer  of  1920,  as  had  been  announced,  or  even  in  1921. 
General  conditions  in  Europe  were  too  disturbed  and  uncer- 
tain for  this  and  facilities  for  handling  large  tourist  parties 
were  utterly  inadequate.  Our  view  of  the  matter  was  ac- 
cepted by  the  London  brethren  and  we  were  requested  to 
report  these  conclusions  to  the  American  members  of  the 
Baptist  World  Alliance  Executive  Committee  on  reaching 
America.    This  we  did. 

We  were  certain,  however,  that  need  and  opportunity  in 
Europe  could  not  wait  a  favorable  hour  for  a  meeting  of 
the  World  Alliance.  Consequently  Dr.  J.  H.  Franklin  of 
the  Foreign  Mission  Society  of  the  Northern  Baptist  Con- 


38  MISSIONARY  MESSAGES 

ventlon,  was  invited  to  come  to  Richmond  for  a  Conference. 
The  invitation  was  accepted,  the  conference  held,  and  before 
it  adjourned  a  program  for  a  European  Conference  was  pre- 
pared. It  was  agreed  that  we  would  present  it  to  the  Boards 
at  home,  and  I  was  requested  to  submit  it  to  Baptist  leaders 
in  London.  Both  the  Foreign  Mission  Society  of  the  North- 
ern Baptist  Convention  and  the  Foreign  Mission  Board  of 
the  Southern  Baptist  Convention  approved  this  program 
heartily,  as  did  the  brethren  in  London.  Upon  joint  request 
of  the  Foreign  Mission  Board  of  the  Southern  Baptist  Con- 
vention and  the  Foreign  Mission  Society  of  the  Northern 
Baptist  Convention,  Dr.  J.  H.  Shakespeare  invited  repre- 
sentatives of  the  Baptist  organizations  of  Europe  and  ar- 
ranged for  the  Conference  in  London,  July  19-23,  1920. 

At  the  Atlanta  Convention  of  which  instruction  had  been 
asked  concerning  undertaking  work  in  Europe,  the  Corre- 
sponding Secretary  of  the  Foreign  Mission  Board  oifered 
the  following  resolution: 

"Resolved,  That  a  committee  of  five  messengers  to  the 
Convention  be  appointed  to  prepare  greetings  of  this  Con- 
vention of  Southern  Baptists  to  the  people  of  'like  precious 
faith  with  us*  scattered  abroad  in  all  nations; 

"That  the  committee  be  composed  of  E.  Y.  Mullins,  L.  R. 
Scarborough,  J.  B.  Gambrell,  Z.  T.  Cody,  and  William 
Ellyson." 

In  ofifering  the  above  resolution  it  was  explained  that 
Southern  Baptists,  having  declared  non-alliance  with  those 
of  contrary  beliefs  and  policies,  should  seek  a  closer  fellow- 
ship with  those  of  their  own  household  of  faith,  and  that 
while  greeting  tliem  in  the  Lord,  we  should  put  forth  such 
definition  of  our  faith  as  would  help  them  to  realize  the 
common  bonds  of  truth  between  us,  and  to  help  others  who 
may  not  wear  our  name,  but  do  believe  the  same  things, 
to  establish  their  identity  with  us.  The  above  committee 
prepared  an  exceptionally  satisfactory  address  and  its  trans- 
lation into  many  tongues  and  circulation  in  many  lands 
provoked  a  wide  and  approving  response,  brought  Southern 


EUROPEAN  PROGRAM  39 

Baptists  to  the  attention  of,  the  Baptists  of  the  world,  and 
helped  to  make  the  London  Conference  what  it  was  by  call- 
ing attention  to  the  bond  of  a  common  faith  held  by  those 
who  were  in  attendance. 

I  may  pause  here  to  say  that  while  Dr.  Cody  was  not 
present  at  the  Conference,  he  influenced  this  meeting  greatly 
by  his  part  in  the  preparation  of  the  Fraternal  Address,  his 
advice  concerning  the  necessity  for  such  a  conference,  and 
his  support  while  in  Europe  of  certain  administrative  prin- 
ciples which  found  recognition  in  the  Conference. 

Dr.  George  W.  Truett  of  Texas  and  the  speaker  were 
appointed  by  the  Foreign  Mission  Board  to  represent  it  in 
this  Conference,  and  early  in  July  proceeded  to  London  to 
meet  our  brethren  from  many  lands.  In  all  the  triumphs 
of  his  great  ministry  Dr.  Truett  has  not  rendered  the  world 
or  his  denomination  a  greater  service. 

No  man  could  have  been  more  fortunate  than  I  in  the 
associates  given  me  for  the  responsible  work  which  engaged 
Dr.  Cody,  Dr.  Truett  and  myself  on  these  representative 
visits  to  Europe.  To  my  dying  day  I  shall  be  grateful  to 
these  wise  and  devoted  men  for  the  service  which  they  have 
rendered  the  great  cause  to  which  I  have  given  my  life, 
and  in  which  the  denomination  must  always  find  the  highest 
expression  of  its  unselfish  Christian  passion.  Dr.  Gill  was 
of  great  service  to  Dr.  Cody  and  me  in  making  the  survey. 
Dr.  Truett  and  I  were  much  strengthened  by  the  counsel 
and  support  which  Drs.  Gambrell  and  Mullins  gave  us  in 
and  during  the  London  Conference. 


II 

The  Personnel  of  the  Conference 

Even  the  briefest  sketch  of  this  the  most  significant  Con- 
ference of  Baptist  people  in  modern  times  should  make 
prominent  mention  of  Dr.  John  Clifford,  who  with  dignity 
and  yet  with  consummate  grace  and  courtesy  presided  over 
the  meetings ;  and  of  Dr.  J.  H.  Shakespeare,  who  as  Secre- 


40  MISSIONARY  MESSAGES 

tary  of  the  Conference  and  by  faithful  work  in  advance 
made  it  possible,  and  by  his  resourcefulness  and  unfailing 
kindness  to  the  representatives  during  the  Conference,  placed 
all  under  obligation  to  him;  and  Drs.  J.  H.  Rushbrooke 
and  Chas.  A.  Brooks,  whose  report  of  European  conditions 
was  the  chief  and  reliable  basis  for  action  by  the  Conference. 
Seventy-two  representative  Baptists  were  present  from 
various  countries  as  follows: 

England:  Dr.  John  Clifford,  Dr.  J,  H.  Shakespeare,  Dr. 
W.  T.  Whitley,  Rev.  J.  H.  Rushbrooke,  Rev.  D.  Witton 
Jenkins,  Rev.  E.  H.  Brown,  Rev.  C  T.  Byford,  Dr.  J.  W. 
Ewing,  Mr.  J.  Wallis  Goddard,  Dr.  G.  P.  Gould,  Miss  Mar- 
garet Hardy,  Rev.  E.  E.  Hayward,  Mrs.  Russell  James,  Mr. 
R.  Klickman,  Rev.  Gilbert  Laws,  Rev.  James  Mursell,  Rev. 
A.  M.  Ritchie,  Mrs.  C.  S.  Rose,  Rev.  C.  E.  Wilson,  Rev. 
John  Wilson;  Scotland:  Mr.  Adam  Nimmo,  Mr.  W.  T. 
Oldrieve,  Rev.  Thomas  Stewart;  Ireland:  Rev.  J.  D.  Gil- 
more,  Rev.  R.  Hodgett ;  Australia:  Rev.  T.  E.  Ruth ;  Austria: 
Rev.  August  Wiegand;  Belgium:  Rev.  O.  Valet;  Checho- 
slovakia: Rev.  J.  Tolar,  Rev.  F.  Kolator;  Denmark:  Rev. 
Peter  Olsen;  Esthonia:  Rev.  Adam  Podin,  Mrs.  Podin; 
Finland:  Rev.  Erik  Jansson,  Rev.  I.  S.  Ostermann;  France: 
Rev.  R.  Dubarry,  Rev.  Ph.  Vincent,  Rev.  Hanmer  Jenkins ; 
Germany:  Prediger  B.  Weerts,  Prediger  F.  W.  Simoleit, 
Missions-direktor  K.  Mascher;  Holland:  Rev.  J.  W.  Wee- 
hink;  Hungary:  Rev.  A.  Udvarnoki,  Rev.  Stephen  Orosz, 
Mrs.  Orosz;  Italy:  Rev.  D.  G  Whittinghill,  Rev.  W.  Kem- 
me  Landels;  Latvia:  Pastor  J.  A.  Frey;  Norway:  Rev.  P. 
Stainsen,  Rev.  A.  Ohrn;  Poland:  Rev.  F.  Brauer,  Rev.  K. 
W.  Strzelec;  Roumania:  Rev.  C.  R.  Igrisan,  Rev.  C.  Ado- 
rian;  Spain:  Rev.  G.  T.  Vickman;  Sweden:  Rev.  C.  E. 
Benander,  Rev.  J.  Bystrom,  Rev.  N.  J.  Nordstrom;  Can- 
ada: Dr.  O.  C.  S.  Wallace ;  Northern  Baptist  Convention^ 
U.  S.  A.:  Rev.  C.  A.  Brooks,  Mr.  Mornay  Williams,  Dr.  J. 
H.  Franklin,  Dr.  Emory  W.  Hunt,  Rev.  O.  Brouillette,  Dr. 
Arthur  Fowler;  Southern  Baptist  Convention,  U.  S.  A.: 
Dr.  J.  F.  Love,  Dr.  George  W.  Truett,  Dr.  J.  B.  Gambrell, 
President  E.  Y.  Mullins,  D.  D.,  Dr.  H.  C  Wayman.    Almost 


EUROPEAN  PROGRAM  41 

without  exception  these  were  seasoned  men,  some  of  them 
veterans.  Dr.  John  Clifford,  the  dauntless  champion  of  re- 
ligious liberty  and  disestablishment  in  England,  and  Dr. 
J.  B.  Gambrell,  the  religious  Commoner  of  America,  were 
there,  both  of  them  still  full  of  mettle  and  champing  the  bit 
at  the  age  of  eighty-four  and  seventy-nine  years,  respectively. 
Men  were  there  who  bore  in  their  bodies  the  marks  of  the 
Lord  Jesus;  men  from  Siberian  exile,  and  from  many  im- 
prisonments for  the  gospel's  sake.  There  was  not  a  dainty 
man  in  the  bunch,  but  many  grizzled  and  inured  soldiers 
of  the  cross  were  there  to  hold  counsel  of  war,  lay  the  lines 
of  battle  and  return  again  to  the  trenches.  Heroes  were 
there  from  Jugo-Slavia,  from  Hungary,  Roumania,  Czecho- 
slovakia, Poland,  Austria,  Germany,  Latvia,  Esthonia,  Lith- 
uania, and  Ireland  and  Scotland,  and  Belgium  and  Denmark, 
etc.  They  were  there  from  lonely  and  isolated  posts  where 
they  had  raised  the  flag  of  our  faith  in  defiance  of  the 
powers  of  this  world,  but  now  flushed  with  high  expecta- 
tion of  reenforcement  and  radiant  in  the  new  joy  of  fellow- 
ship with  the  stronger  groups  of  their  brethren. 

I  count  it  one  of  the  highest  privileges  of  my  life  to  have 
sat  through  those  memorable  hours  of  conference,  prayer, 
and  praise  with  these  men  of  many  lands  and  many  tongues, 
but  of  a  common  faith.  If  I  am  ever  the  same  man  again, 
I  shall  descend  from  the  heights  of  rare  experience  and  be 
disobedient  to  the  vision  which  was  vouchsafed  unto  me. 
One  is  embarrassingly  conscious  of  severe  limitations  in  any 
attempt  to  communicate  the  experience  of  these  days  of 
high  privilege  to  those  of  his  brethren  who  were  not  there. 
I  feel  as  one  who  had  been  on  a  mount  with  God  and  had 
descended  to  the  plains  where  the  fog  lies  thick  and  chill. 


Ill 

The  Conference  Itself 

We  must,  however,  attempt  to  give  you  at  least  a  glint 
into  the  proceedings  of  this  Conference. 


42  MISSIONARY  MESSAGES 

1.  Certain  items  in  the  Baptist  Program  for  Europe 
were  taken  up  and  referred  to  Committees  and  deliberated 
upon,  such  as  Education,  Literature,  Spheres  of  Activity 
by  the  respective  boards,  Relief  and  Reconstruction.  We 
reviewed  the  awful  and  heart-breaking  destitution  which 
has  engulfed  multitudes  of  our  brethren  and  sisters  and 
their  little  ones  who  in  great  numbers  cry  in  their  hunger 
for  fathers  who  can  never  hear  their  cry.  Findings  on  these 
various  items  were  adopted  by  the  Conference  and  pre- 
sented by  the  representatives  present  to  their  respective 
boards  and  organizations. 

2.  In  the  discussion  of  some  of  the  items  of  the  program 
certain  questions  of  administrative  policy  were  brought 
under  consideration.  Two  of  these  especially  called  forth 
frank  and  positive  speech,  though,  I  think,  in  a  spirit  of 
true  brotherliness.  The  candor  and  courtesy  which  are 
essential  to  the  behavior  of  Christian  men  characterized  the 
Conference.  The  point  was  raised  whether  the  Baptist 
World  Alliance  should  be  recognized  as  an  administrative 
organization  and  the  Baptist  Program  for  Europe  should 
head  up  in  one  place  in  Europe,  or  be  referred  to  the  For- 
eign Mission  Agencies  now  operated  and  controlled  by  the 
respective  Baptist  groups  and  responsible  to  them.  The 
other  point  discussed  was  whether  we  should  recommend  a 
cooperation  throughout  the  whole  of  Europe  or  a  coordi- 
nation of  effort  which  equitably  distributes  Baptist  influence 
over  all  the  countries  of  Europe  but  leaves  each  Board  free 
to  promote  work  in  accordance  with  its  own  policies.  The 
representatives  of  the  Foreign  Mission  Board  entertained 
deep,  and,  we  think,  mature  conviction  that  each  Foreign 
Mission  Agency  should  retain  its  own  administrative  prerog- 
atives and  remain  directly  responsible  to  its  own  constituency 
and,  in  accordance  with  this,  that  the  most  effective  co- 
operation is  a  coordination  of  our  Baptist  forces  in  such  a 
way  as  to  cover  the  whole  territory  and  secure  concert  of 
action  without  merging  function.  These  two  points  brought 
on  earnest  discussion  which  clarified  the  thinking  of  all  of  us 
on  matters  of  missionary  policy  and  administration.    In  the 


EUROPEAN  PROGRAM  43 

end  the  latter  views  prevailed.  We  rejoice  in  the  confidence 
that  Southern  Baptists  have  the  privilege  of  promoting  a 
sound  missionary  policy  in  their  work  for  Europe  and  yet 
have  the  most  fraternal  relations  with  all  who  were  repre- 
sented in  the  Conference. 

3.  The  spirit  which  prevailed  was  a  remarkable  feature 
of  this  epochal  meeting.  It  was  evident  from  the  beginning, 
and  grew  more  evident  to  the  end  of  the  Conference,  that 
the  men  who  had  gathered  were  brought  together  in  real 
bonds  of  brotherhood.  Say  all  you  will  about  fraternities 
and  common  Christian  ties,  there  is  between  men  of  "like 
precious  faith"  a  bond  of  union,  a  warm  and  tender  affec- 
tion which  does  not  exist  between  others.  There  was  a 
consciousness  among  us  all  that  we  had  found  a  true  spir- 
itual kinship  in  the  men  and  women  of  our  faith  who  had 
come  up  to  the  London  Conference  from  their  distant 
homes.  Under  such  circumstances  there  was  no  forced 
manifestation  of  affection,  no  restraint  upon  discussion,  no 
stiff  and  artificial  conventionalities,  no  guarding  of  proper- 
ties, but  a  spontaneous,  natural  and  unhampered  fellow- 
ship. In  such  a  fellowship  each  feels  that  he  is  understood 
by  the  other  and  that  all  have  common  ends  to  serve.  This 
excellent  and  delightful  spirit  of  the  London  Conference 
found  its  natural  expression  in  the  unanimous  vote  which 
was  given  every  report  in  its  final  form.  This  unanimity  of 
action  included  not  only  the  oflficial  representatives  of  the 
Boards,  but  such  visitors  as  Dr.  Gambrell  and  Dr.  Mullins 
who  were  invited  to  full  participation  in  the  Conference 
and  to  exercise  their  Baptist  freedom  without  embarrass- 
ment to  themselves  or  any  one  else.  The  spirit  in  which 
the  decisions  of  the  Conference  were  sought  and  the 
unanimity  in  which  they  were  reached  inclined  those  of  us 
who  were  present  to  the  firm  belief  that  the  Spirit  of  God 
validated  the  actions  of  this  Conference. 


44  MISSIONARY  MESSAGES 

IV 

The  Appeal  of  the  Conference 

There  is  in  this  European  Program  an  appeal  which  I 
feel  strongly,  and  which  I  believe  you  will  feel  if  certain 
facts  about  it  are  once  fixed  in  your  minds.  Nothing  to 
which  I  have  ever  turned  my  hands  for  my  denomination 
has  seemed  to  me  so  full  of  potential  blessings  for  the  world 
as  this  program  which  we  have  undertaken  to  put  into  eflfect. 

1.  There  is,  in  the  first  place,  repeated  here  the  old  ap- 
peal of  Europe  as  a  mission  field.  One  of  the  most  sig- 
nificant of  all  passages  in  the  New  Testament  which  bears 
upon  the  missionary  program  in  its  universal  and  ageless 
aspects,  is  that  which  is  recorded  in  the  16th  chapter  of 
the  Acts.  The  call  of  Macedonia  and  the  response  of  the 
Apostle  Paul  to  that  call  was  the  appeal  of  and  response  to 
Europe's  needs  and  Europe's  urgent  and  exceptional  im- 
portance as  a  field  for  evangelistic  effort.  In  that  incident 
is  a  divine  emphasis  upon  the  importance  of  missionary 
strategy  in  the  propagation  of  the  gospel.  Europe  can  not 
be  ignored  if  we  would  evangelize  the  world.  It  is  crucial 
to  the  universalization  of  the  Gospel  of  Jesus  and  to  peace 
and  righteousness  on  earth.  There  is,  too,  significance  in 
the  fact  that  about  the  time  Paul  was  crossing  the  ^gean 
and  beginning  the  missionary  conquest  of  Europe  at  Philippi, 
the  soldiers  of  Claudius  were  landing  in  the  neighborhood 
of  the  place  where  this  London  Conference  was  held. 
Claudius  was  a  sort  of  forerunner  of  civilization  and  an 
unconscious  agent  in  the  hands  of  Providence  making 
straight  paths  and  opening  up  highways  for  the  feet  of 
those  who  were  to  bear  the  glad  tidings  of  peace.  Paul 
with  his  gospel,  responding  to  the  call  of  Macedonia,  started 
in  upon  the  conquest  of  Europe  and  was  marching  toward 
the  seats  of  Empire  and  of  civilization. 

In  the  physical  needs  and  distress  and  the  greater  mis- 
sionary opportunities  which  Europe  presents  to-day  there 
is  an  appeal  as  truly  mandatory  and  which  transcends  the 


EUROPEAN  PROGRAM  45 

Macedonia  call.  Now  again  God  is  by  circumstance  sig- 
nifying the  time  for  a  new  evangelistic  campaign  on  the 
Continent  of  Europe  and  in  Europe's  need  is  again  voicing 
the  prayer,  "Come  over  and  help  us/'  It  is  a  thrilling  expe- 
rience to  realize  that  the  privilege  is  given  us,  even  us,  of 
repeating  in  our  day,  and  on  larger  lines,  the  acts  of  the 
apostle.  God  crowns  a  hundred  years  of  Baptist  missionary 
service  and  achievement  with  the  privilege  of  undertaking 
a  sublimely  important  and  potential  piece  of  missionary 
service. 

2.  /  name  as  a  second  appeal  this:  The  London  Confer- 
ence has  given  to  the  Baptists  of  the  World  a  real  Baptist 
World  Alliance.  That  which  we  have  heretofore  called 
the  "Baptist  World  Alliance"  has  been  an  occasional  high 
peak  of  fellowship  and  of  inspiration;  this  has  been  worth 
while,  but  the  Alliance  left  us  no  tasks  to  perform  and 
made  no  program.  An  alliance,  even  of  those  of  com- 
mon faith,  is  ineffectual  if  it  has  not  for  its  purpose  some 
great  work  to  be  done.  Soldiers  must  fight  or  they  will 
fuss.  If  they  are  not  directed  to  follow  up  the  enemy, 
they  will  fall  out  among  themselves.  The  idlers  in  our 
Christian  ranks  are  the  disturbers.  Sooner  or  later  discord 
breaks  out  among  those  who,  however  much  they  may  have 
in  common,  have  not  a  common  work.  It  requires  a  great 
task  to  insure  great  fellowship.  The  hearts  of  men  are 
fused  in  the  passion  of  great  and  unselfish  service.  A  chal- 
lenging task  and  hard  work  creates  a  feeling  of  comrade- 
ship.    We  have  now  a  real  Baptist  World  Alliance. 

What  practical  ends  do  the  Baptists  of  the  world  hence- 
forth strive  for?  What  have  we  entered  into  holy  alliance 
to  do? 

(a)  To  bear  the  burdens  one  of  another.  We  take  up  in 
the  compassions  of  Christ  and  as  a  sign  of  fellowship  the 
burden  of  nakedness  and  starvation  under  which  we  find 
the  hearts  of  great  numbers  of  our  brethren  and  sisters  in 
Europe  breaking.  We  have  said  to  them  that  we  will 
not  feast  while  you  starve ;  we  will  not  flaunt  extravagance 
and   exhibit  our  vanity   while   our   sisters  in   Europe   are 


46  MISSIONARY  MESSAGES 

clothed  in  tatters  and  shiver  under  the  biting  frost  of  win- 
ter ;  we  will  not  spoil  our  children  through  indulgence  while 
yours  cry  for  bread.  We  shall  repeat  the  story  of  Second 
Corinthians  and  decline  to  be  eased  while  others  are  bur- 
dened. We  insist  upon  greater  equality  in  circumstance. 
We  will  send  bread  for  the  hungry  and  clothing  for  those 
who  are  cold.  But,  more  than  this,  we  will  warm  the  hearts 
of  our  brothers  by  the  response  which  Christian  love  makes 
to  their  necessities. 

(b)  We  shall  release  to  the  ministry  of  Christ  Baptist 
preachers  in  Europe  whose  hearts  are  panting  for  the  work 
to  which  God  has  called  them,  but  who  through  poverty 
are  now  bound  down  to  drudgery  of  daily  toil  and  are  strug- 
gling desperately  to  give  bread  to  their  children  while  the 
work  which  they  love  is  being  neglected.  We  will  place 
shoes  on  the  feet  of  other  missionaries  who  without  such 
have  gone  barefooted  carrying  the  good  tidings  to  their 
broken-hearted  and  broken-spirited  countrymen.  The 
hearts  of  these  true  servants  of  Christ  are  hurt  quite  as 
much  because  of  lost  opportunities  for  advancing  the  cause 
of  Jesus  as  from  having  their  babies  pinched  by  cold  and 
hunger.  We  shall  also  further  increase  the  number  of  those 
who  herald  the  truth  by  furnishing  facilities  for  the  educa- 
tion of  young  women  and  young  men  whom  God  has  called 
but  who  through  these  troublous  years  and  for  want  of 
schools  for  their  training  have  been  compelled  to  defer 
their  hopes.  There  are  scores  of  such  waiting  for  help  to 
realize  their  vision. 

(c)  But  perhaps  the  most  significant  thing  about  this 
alliance  is,  we  shall  hereafter  be  able  to  speak  with  the 
voice  of  eight  million  Baptists  to  the  governments  of  Europe 
in  protest  against  the  persecution  of  our  people  and  of  any 
people  for  their  religious  faith  and  in  the  interest  of  religious 
freedom  for  all  men.  Rev.  J.  H.  Rushbrooke  of  London  has 
been  selected  to  represent  the  Baptists  of  the  world  with 
this  important  matter  as  a  primary  consideration.  Perse- 
cuting priests  and  conniving  officials  in  Jugo-Slavia  and 
Roumania  shall  be  compelled  to  hear  the  protests  of  eight 


EUROPEAN  PROGRAM  47 

million  Baptists,  and  many  of  them  will  for  the  first  time 
learn  what  real  and  thoroughgoing  religious  liberty  is.  They 
will  find  that  there  is  a  denomination  in  the  world  that  asks 
no  special  favors  for  itself  but  does  ask  absolute  religious 
liberty  for  everybody.  They  will  learn  that  the  Baptist 
people  claim  something  more  than  toleration,  but  that  they 
do  not  claim  an  ounce  of  peculiar  privilege,  a  penny  of 
the  people's  taxes  for  any  phase  of  their  religious  work; 
that  they  exert  no  influence  upon  politicians  and  legislators 
in  their  own  favor  which  is  not  exerted  in  favor  of  everybody 
else  who  is  willing  to  accept  common  and  impartial  rights 
with  others. 

(d)  This  Alliance  will  promote  homogeneous  faith  and 
denominational  life  throughout  the  world.  Channels  of 
communication  are  being  established.  Inter-communication 
is  going  on.  It  has  already  become  evident  that  the  majority 
of  the  Baptist  people  on  the  Continent  of  Europe  and 
throughout  the  world  are  tenaciously  holding  on  to  a  faith 
and  polity  either  closely  alike  or  exactly  identical  to  the 
faith  and  polity  of  Southern  Baptists.  It  has  been  found 
that  the  individuals  and  groups  which  hold  divergent  views 
constitute  a  feeble  minority  compared  with  the  vast  numbers 
who  hold  and  strongly  defend  a  common  faith.  There  has 
been  opened  up  in  the  Foreign  Mission  Board  rooms  a  Bur- 
eau of  Communications  through  which  literature  and  cor- 
respondence are  sent  forth  and  received,  and  this  is  helping 
the  scattered  members  of  the  denomination  to  discover  Bap- 
tist unity  and  to  strengthen  it.  It  may  be  expected  that 
the  Baptists  will  in  the  future  present  to  the  world  a  de- 
nominational life  in  which  homogeneity  and  democracy  find 
expression  in  a  positive  and  constructive  program  and  which 
gathers  force  and  invincibility  from  these  characteristics. 

(e)  This  actual  Baptist  World  Alliance  secures  co- 
ordination of  effort  and  makes  possible  concentrated  action 
throughout  the  whole  field  of  Baptist  life  and  missionary 
activity  in  Europe.  We  shall  be  able  by  the  harmonious 
ordering  of  our  missionary  forces  to  secure  the  witness  to 
our  faith  in  every  country  in  Europe  and  at  the  same  time 


48  MISSIONARY  MESSAGES 

effect  a  close  impact  of  combined  Baptist  influence  at  any 
point  where  the  program  is  imperiled  or  our  people  are  in 
need  of  our  protection  or  help.  We  have  a  program  which 
recognizes  autonomy  in  unity. 

3.  Another  appeal  of  this  Program  is  that  it  inaugurates 
for  Europe  a  new  reformation.  This  to  me  is  a  thrilling 
aspect  of  our  new  task.  Europe  presents  to  the  world  an 
ecclesiastical  Christianity.  Europe  has  never  been  evan- 
gelized. It  has  had  a  military  conversion,  an  ecclesiastical 
conversion,  a  diplomatic  conversion,  an  intellectual  con- 
version; but  it  has  never  had  an  evangelical  conversion. 
Paul  opened  up  channels  for  evangelical  Christianity  in 
Europe  along  which  for  a  while  flowed  the  limpid  waters 
of  life,  but  shortly  the  movement  got  mixed  with  worldly 
motives  and  as  a  consequence  the  evangelical  conversion 
of  Europe  was  delayed  and  confounded  with  the  rule  of 
the  Empire  and  secular  civilization.  Pure  Christianity  has 
never  prevailed  over  large  sections  of  Europe.  The  thor- 
ough conversion  of  semi-Christian  Europe  is  to-day  mis- 
sionary strategy  of  the  highest  order. 

The  task  of  evangelizing  Europe  has  in  it  some  new  and 
challenging  elements.  The  channels  along  which  once 
moved  the  tides  of  evangelical  truth  in  the  countries  of 
Europe  have  themselves  become  clogged  and  the  truth  con- 
taminated. They  were  originally  opened  up  through  fields 
of  heathenism.  These  channels  must  be  reopened  in  fields 
of  semi-Christianity.  In  many  places  the  miasmas  of  super- 
stition have  settled  down  upon  these  original  channels  and 
in  other  places  the  frost  of  rationalism  has  fallen  from 
high  intellectual  peaks  about  European  Universities  and 
chilled  the  faith  of  many.  Icicles  hang  from  pulpits  where 
tongues  of  fire  are  needed.  To  thaw  and  purify  the  poten- 
tial sources  of  Christianity  in  Europe  is  a  missionary 
strategy  which  has  to  do  with  the  essential  Christian  mes- 
sage and  its  messengers  who  are  to  carry  it  throughout  the 
world.  We  must  not,  in  setting  ourselves  to  this  task,  for- 
get that  false  forms  of  Christianity  are  usually  more 
irresistible  than  stark  heathenism.    And  yet  we  believe  that 


EUROPEAN  PROGRAM  49 

the  present  time  lends  more  encouragement  for  the  accom- 
plishment of  this  task  than  any  years  since  Popery  first  set 
up  its  autocratic  soul-tyranny  in  the  city  of  Rome,  or  Greek 
Orthodoxy  congealed  at  Constantinople.  There  are  distinct 
tokens  of  advantage  in  pressing  this  Reformation  at  this 
time. 

In  the  first  place  Europe  suffers  a  broken  heart  and  in  her 
sorrow  her  people  have  been  made  to  feel  a  new  sense  of 
the  need  of  religious  reality.  If  at  such  a  time  we  can  show 
the  compassions  of  Christ  for  those  who  suffer  and  yield 
the  practical  fruits  of  Christian  benevolence,  we  will  make 
willing  hearers  for  our  Christian  message.  Because  of  our 
benefactions  our  missionaries  will  find  a  new  hospitality  to 
the  truth. 

In  the  second  place,  the  old  ecclesiastical  systems  have 
suffered  through  the  ordeal  of  the  War.  Thoughts,  motives, 
and  ideals  have  mixed  in  this  turmoil  and  have  flowed  into 
every  nook  and  corner  of  Europe.  Many  thousands  of  men 
have  gotten  a  taste  of  a  larger  world  of  things,  of  men  and 
ideas,  and  will  no  longer  be  content  with  such  circumscrip- 
tion as  Romanism  imposes  upon  its  devotees.  The  old  re- 
ligions of  Roman  Catholicism  and  Greek  Orthodoxy  have 
failed  to  meet  the  needs  of  men  in  this  awful  hour  and  can 
not  adjust  themselves  to  the  changing  order.  It  is  true 
that  some  prophets, — and  it  is  remarkable  how  many  minor 
preachers  became  major  prophets  at  the  beginning  of  the 
v^ar, — it  is  true,  I  say,  that  some  of  these  prophets  foretold 
the  transformation  and  new  vitalization  of  these  traditional 
faiths  in  consequence  of  the  War.  Indeed,  when  these 
prophets  sought  to  foretell  the  future,  they  indulged  ex- 
travagantly. They  told  us  that  those  who.  expected  to  ren- 
der service  as  preachers  among  the  soldiers  behind  the  lines 
must  change  their  methods  in  dealing  with  young  men  and 
find  a  new  message.  All  were  doomed  to  failure  who  ven- 
tured to  preach  the  old  gospel  to  this  army  of  young  men 
in  khaki !  Well,  now  as  a  matter  of  fact  the  only  men  who 
came  back  home  from  across  the  sea  with  heads  drooped 
and  no  victories  to  their  credit  were  these  prophets  and  the 


50  MISSIONARY  MESSAGES 

preachers  who  accepted  their  prophecies  and  went  into  the 
camp  with  a  new  gospel.  The  men  who  went  after  our 
boys  with  the  gospel  with  which  these  had  been  famiUar 
at  home  found  them  ready  listeners  the  night  before  battle, 
and  these  men  came  back  home  to  report  many  conversions 
and  triumphant  death  scenes.  Dr.  George  Truett  found  that 
the  gospel  of  Jesus  which  tamed  the  cow-boys  of  the  West 
subdued  the  hearts  of  soldiers  in  France.  The  prophecies 
concerning  the  ecclesiasticism  of  Europe  were  equally  false. 
Dr.  John  Clifford,  who  knows  things,  says  of  these  religions 
and  the  effect  of  the  war  upon  them  that  they  have  not 
found  salvation.  He  says,  "They  do  not  win  confidence, 
or  inspire  reverence,  or  challenge  conscience,  or  strengthen 
will,  or  uplift  conduct."  They  are  still  immobile  and  im- 
potent. 

The  war  has  not  changed  these  traditional  religions,  but 
it  has  modified  the  thought  and  feeling  of  the  people  for 
them  and  for  the  institutions  of  Catholicism.  Millions  have 
lost  faith  in  both  Roman  and  Greek  Catholicism.  The  ex- 
quisite embroideries,  the  silver  and  gold,  diamonds  and 
jewels,  the  flashing  crowns,  bejeweled  crosses,  and  unused 
wealth  in  many  forms  which  one  sees  in  some  of  the 
cathedrals  of  Europe,  would,  at  their  market  value,  feed 
and  save  from  starvation  a  million  women  and  children. 
But  these  priests,  bishops  and  cardinals  hug  and  hoard 
these  useless  marks  of  their  vanity  while  children  cry 
for  bread.  But  the  people  will  not  forget.  The  vast  and 
gorgeous  cathedrals  of  Europe  are  even  now  and  on  gala 
days,  when  bishops  and  cardinals  are  on  show,  more  than 
half  empty.  Even  among  the  priests  there  is  a  loss  of  con- 
fidence. I  am  reliably  informed  that  eight  thousand  Italian 
priests  and  monks  who  during  the  War  got  a  taste  of  per- 
sonal liberty  and  a  new  sense  of  their  manhood  have  de- 
clined to  put  on  the  frock  again. 

Catholicism  is  discredited  in  Europe  while  making  des- 
perate effort  to  establish  itself  in  the  favor  of  this  country. 
But  even  here  there  is  a  quiet  brooding  on  the  facts  and  a 
growing   intelligence   concerning  methods   of    propaganda. 


EUROPEAN  PROGRAM  51 

All  over  the  country  there  is  increasing  disgust  at  the  way 
secular  newspapers  have,  at  the  behest  of  the  Knights  of 
Columbus,  framed  up  the  McSweeney  incident  and  used 
in  America  for  proselyting  purposes  money  which  was  given 
under  government  auspices  for  relief  abroad.  Some  day 
politicians  and  editors  of  secular  papers  will  learn  that  they 
do  not  command  the  intelHgence,  the  patriotism  and  the 
conscience  of  the  American  people  when  they  take  their  cue 
from  Rome  and  lend  themselves  to  a  propaganda  which 
seeks  to  embroil  this  nation  with  England.  Those  who  lend 
their  ears  and  columns  to  the  designing  schemes  of  a  small 
minority  of  the  religious  element  in  this  nation  and  that 
minority  subject  to  and  inspired  by  a  religious  autocrat 
seated  on  his  throne  on  the  Tiber,  will  find  a  waning  follow- 
ing. Fifty-five  per  centum  of  the  American  people  are  of 
English  stock,  and  half  the  other  forty-five  per  centum  have 
no  confidence  in  Romanism  or  patience  with  those  who 
pander  to  it. 

It  is  the  hour  of  all  hours  in  the  history  of  Europe  for 
evangelical  Christians  to  fare  forth  in  the  spirit  of  Christ 
to  satisfy  the  needs  and  heal  the  broken  hearts  of  men.  If 
I  were  asked  to  tell  what  is  the  most  encouraging  word  I 
have  heard  in  going  up  and  down  Europe,  it  would  be  that 
which  a  Baptist  preacher  told  us  in  the  London  Conference. 
He  said  that  prevented  as  German  Baptists  are  from  the 
privilege  of  continuing  their  foreign  mission  work,  they 
have  put  on  a  program  of  house  to  house  evangelism  in 
Germany,  and  that  men  and  women  are  going  from  door 
to  door  "telling  the  story  in  its  simplest  form."  Mind  you, 
telling  the  story,  telling  it  in  its  simplest  form  in  Germany 
where  rationalism  and  high  intellectualism  have  hooted  the 
gospel  of  Jesus  and  where  human  theories  have  obscured 
the  Christ  of  the  Gospels.  In  my  judgment  there  is  for  the 
Christian  minister  and  for  Christendom  a  lesson  of  highest 
missionary  value  in  that  simple  phrase,  "telling  the  story 
in  its  simplest  form."  We  will  go  on  courageously  and 
faithfully  equipping  our  schools,  but  we  must  free  ourselves 
from  some  of  the  mischief  which  some  schools  have  already 


52  MISSIONARY  MESSAGES 

wrought  and  get  back  to  telling  the  story  in  its  simplest 
form  if  we  would  reach  the  masses,  evangelize  the  world 
and  stem  the  tide  of  a  Christless  intellectualism. 

4.  Another  appeal  of  the  European  Program  is  that  we 
hwve  set  ourselves  to  the  task  of  making  conquest  of  the 
white  races  of  the  world.  Let  us  not  forget  that  to  the  white 
man  God  gave  the  instinct  and  talent  to  disseminate  His 
ideals  among  other  people  and  that  He  did  not,  to  the  same 
degree,  give  this  instinct  and  talent  to  the  yellow,  brown 
or  black  race.  The  white  race  only  has  the  genius  to  in- 
troduce Christianity  into  all  lands  and  among  all  people. 
This  is  not  a  ground  for  spiritual  pride  nor  of  contempt  for 
any  colored  race.  It  is  a  solemn  fact.  It  fixes  exceptional 
responsibility. 

If  the  white  races  of  Europe  are  saved,  they  will  not 
save  the  colored  races,  but  they  can  inaugurate  Christianity 
among  the  colored  races  and  the  converts  which  they  make 
will  ultimately  create  a  native  constituency  and  evangelize 
these  nations.  Indeed  the  peoples  of  Europe  and  their  ideas 
overflow  the  world.  Dr.  John  Clifford  calls  the  people  of 
Europe  *'the  dispersion  of  these  latter  days."  He  says, 
"They  go  everywhere,  they  can  not  stay  at  home.  Europe 
is  too  crowded.  Take  the  gospel  to  Europeans  and  they 
will  carry  it  everywhere."  This  is  undoubtedly  true.  Euro- 
peans will  bring  Christianity  instead  of  Roman  intrigue  to 
our  own  shores  if  we  will  evangelize  Europe.  We  must 
deal  with  this  fountain  at  its  source.  We  must,  to  change 
the  figure,  plant  the  seed  of  gospel  truth  in  the  very  heart 
of  Europe,  which  is  the  seed-plot  of  great  wars  and  great 
heresies  and  can  be  made  the  seed-plot  of  Christianity. 

Four-fifths  of  the  white  people  of  the  world  are  in  Europe. 
We  have  in  our  new  foreign  mission  territory  in  Europe  a 
white  population  which  exceeds  by  one-fourth  the  total 
population  of  all  races  and  classes  in  America  and  five 
times  the  white  population  of  the  South.  It  was  to  these 
white  people  that  Paul  was  called  to  go  in  the  voice  from 
Macedonia.  The  call  of  Europe  to-day  in  her  hunger  and 
religious  condition  is  no  less  resonant  with  the  voice  of  God 


EUROPEAN  PROGRAM  53 

for  Southern  Baptists  than  was  the  call  of  Macedonia  for 
Paul.  Hitherto  this  modern  missionary  era  has  been  char- 
acterized by  missions  to  the  yellow  races,  the  brown  and  the 
black  races.  Not  for  a  moment  do  we  contemplate  doing 
less,  but  rather  immeasurably  more  for  Japan,  China  and 
Africa.  In  thus  obeying  God  we  have  discharged  some 
measure  of  the  white  man's  great  obligation.  We  shall  not 
halt  in  this  holy  work,  but  Southern  Baptists  have  entered 
into  an  alliance  with  their  brethren  that  they  will  also,  as 
an  important  part  of  this  World  Program,  take  account  of 
the  white  races  in  Europe. 

Mr.  Lothrop  Stoddard  has  recently  written  an  alarming 
book  called  "The  Rising  Tide  of  Color."  He  sees  a  new 
momentum  in  the  ceaseless  pressure  of  the  colored  races 
upon  the  white  races  of  Europe.  He  views  with  something 
approaching  consternation  the  fact  that  the  Great  War  has 
weakened  the  resistance  of  the  white  races  and  made  pen- 
etrable those  outposts  of  defense  which  heretofore  have 
resisted  the  tides  of  color  ever  pressing  upon  them.  Mr. 
Stoddard  has,  we  think,  diagnosed  the  case  correctly,  but 
like  all  men  who  are  alarmed,  he  has  failed  to  name  the 
effectual  remedy  for  a  danger  like  this.  He  sees  safety  in 
white  alliance,  in  diplomacy,  and  a  readiness  for  concerted 
militarism.  He  does  not  see  that  the  religion  of  Jesus  and 
that  only  will  impart  invincibleness  to  the  white  race  and 
lift  the  colored  races  to  the  plain  of  peaceful  participation 
in  Christian  civilization.  If  we  can  inject  the  truth  and  the 
spirit  of  Christ  into  European  nations  at  this  time  when 
destiny  is  pivoted,  we  shall  both  save  the  white  civilization 
of  Europe  and  hasten,  yea,  insure  the  day  of  redemption  for 
the  brown  races  which  menace  white  Europe. 

Southern  Baptists  are  given  a  territory  in  the  European 
Program  which  has  peculiar  strategic  value.  We  are  in 
the  Balkans  where  Roman  Catholicism  and  Greek  Cathol- 
icism meet,  where  Christianity  and  Mohammedanism  meet, 
and  where  the  brown  and  white  races  meet.  Roman 
Catholicism  and  Greek  Catholicism  have  grappled.  What- 
ever the  mutual  losses  of  these  through  antagonisms,  we 


54  MISSIONARY  MESSAGES 

will  endeavor  to  snatch  up  and  turn  to  the  gain  of  evan- 
gelical Christianity.  And  we  will  seek  in  the  Balkans  to 
flank  Mohammedanism  which  more  than  Romanism  or  Greek 
Orthodoxy  is  the  religion  of  conquest  in  our  day.  In  the 
cock  pit  of  the  nations,  whence  have  come  strife  and  war, 
we  shall  seek  to  excite  a  passion  for  peace  and  brotherhood. 
5.  The  strong  appeal  of  this  European  Program  is  that 
it  affords  fellowship  with  heroic  spirits  of  our  faith.  It  has 
been  my  good  fortune  as  a  State  Missionary  to  work  in 
waste  places  at  home,  and  as  a  State  Mission  Secretary 
to  have  fellowship  and  comradeship  with  missionaries  in  the 
Ozark  Mountains  of  Arkansas  and  in  the  Mississippi  delta ; 
and  later  as  one  of  the  secretaries  of  the  Home  Mission 
Board,  to  companion  with  missionaries  to  the  cowboys  and 
the  Indians  on  the  plains  of  the  West.  I  know  something 
of  the  thrill  which  those  enjoy  who  seek  to  gather  diamonds 
for  the  Saviour's  crown  in  mosquito  swamps  and  in  the 
slums  of  the  cities.  Often  has  my  admiration  for  these 
State  and  Home  Missionaries  been  stirred  to  enthusiasm. 
But  I  tell  the  simple  truth  when  I  say  that  I  have  known 
no  men  in  the  homeland  who  have  been  willing  to  take  such 
risks  and  endure  such  sacrifices,  to  go  to  such  lengths  in 
order  to  carry  the  torch  of  our  faith  into  the  dark  places 
as  those  whom  I  have  come  to  know  and  communicate 
with  among  the  heroes  of  the  Cross  on  certain  fields  of 
Europe.  I  have  never  witnessed  such  quenchless  enthusiasm 
as  have  some  of  these  men  with  whom  Southern  Baptists 
are  given  the  privilege  of  fellowship.  These  rugged  and 
daring  heroes  are  in  Spain,  in  Jugo-Slavia,  in  Hungary,  in 
Roumania,  in  Russia  and  Siberia.  Their  lives  are  full  of 
thrilling  instances  of  adventure  for  Christ.  It  is  good  not 
only  for  them  but  it  is  good  for  us  to  enter  into  this  fellow- 
ship. We  shall  be  cured  of  some  of  our  self-pampering,  be 
weaned  from  self-indulgence  and  shamed  out  of  our  ex- 
travagance by  the  simple  living,  the  sacrifices,  the  incom- 
parable fortitude  of  these  men  who  count  not  their  lives 
dear  unto  them  in  their  passion  for  Christ  and  the  lost 
multitudes. 


EUROPEAN  PROGRAM  55 

6.  But  the  European  Program  has  as  its  chief  appeal 
this:  That  it  rounds  out  the  Baptist  World  Program.  Get 
out  your  map  of  the  world,  and  look  up  the  countries  in 
which  the  Foreign  Mission  Board  is  at  work — Japan,  China, 
Africa,  Italy,  Mexico,  several  South  American  Republics — 
and  place  in  this  scheme  of  outposts  the  new  territory  in  Eu- 
rope, Spain,  Jugo-Slavia,  Hungary,  Roumania,  the  Ukraine, 
and  Southeast  Russia,  Northeast  Russia  and  Siberia. 
Add  to  this  Palestine  and  Syria.  If  you  would  get  a  still 
more  adequate  impression  of  the  Baptist  World  Program, 
look  up  the  countries  in  which  Northern  Baptists,  Canadian 
Baptists,  British,  German,  Swedish,  and  other  Baptists 
are  seeking  to  extend  the  frontiers  of  the  Kingdom  of  God. 
At  last  our  Baptist  people  are  a  religious  world-power. 
Southern  Baptists  are  a  part  of  a  great  world-league  through 
which  we  can  secure  concerted  action  throughout  our  scat- 
tered ranks  and  close  and  concentrated  impact  of  influence 
can  be  registered  where  need  and  opportunity  invite.  We 
shall  henceforth,  as  never  before  in  our  foreign  mission 
effort,  be  fulfilling  the  Commission  which  prescribes  mission 
service  to  all  the  world  and  to  every  creature.  The  Bible 
for  our  tactics,  our  Baptist  brethren  throughout  the  world 
for  our  compatriots,  the  map  of  the  world  our  field  of  ac- 
tivity, we  shall  go  from  victory  to  victory  until  Christ  shall 
reign  and  men  everywhere  shall  be  brothers  in  the  bonds 
of  the  truth  as  it  is  in  Christ  Jesus. 


56  MISSIONARY  MESSAGES 

New  Territory. 

The  following  countries  are  included  in  the  Foreign  Mis- 
sion Board's  new  European  and  Asiatic  mission  field: 

Spain — 

Square  miles  194,783 

Population   19,000,000 

Baptist  church  membership 700 

Jugoslavia — 

Square  miles 73,243 

Population   10,013,317 

Baptist  church  membership 600 

Hungary — 

Square  miles 53,011 

Population    7,000,000 

Baptist  church  membership 11,000 

Roumania — 

Square  miles    96,183 

Population   13,946,207 

Baptist  church  membership 17,000 

Russian  Ukraine  and  Territory  East  thereof — 

Square  miles 779,703 

Population  77,870,500 

Baptist  church  membership — (impossible 
to  ascertain  at  this  time). 

Siberia — 

Square  miles 6,294,119 

Population 29,141,500 

Baptist  church  membership 10,000 

Syria  and  Palestine — 

Square  miles 160,740 

Population   3,133,500 

Baptist  church  membership,  about 100 

Total  New  Territory  of  Southern  Baptists, 
approximately — 

Square  miles 7,600,859 

Total  population 16,075,000 


CHAPTER  IV 

BAPTIST  MISSIONS  IN  THE  NEW  WORLD  ORDER 

HOW  can  we  impart  the  unchangeable  gospel  to  the 
changing  world  and  gain  for  the  missionary  enter- 
prise all  the  advantages  that  conditions  offer?  This  is  the 
big  missionary  problem  now  on  the  hands  of  the  churches 
of  Christ  and  their  mission  boards.  The  comparative  suc- 
cess of  the  missionary  enterprise  and  the  welfare  of  the 
world  to  generations  are  conditioned  upon  the  solution  of 
this  problem. 

Perhaps  a  brief  review  of  some  of  the  elements  char- 
acteristic of  the  New  World  Order,  elements  indeed  which 
make  the  new  order,  may  help  us  to  appraise  whatever 
suggestions  may  be  made  for  the  solution  of  our  problem. 
There  is,  all  will  admit,  an  extraordinariness  about  the 
present,  whether  one  considers  this  to  be  an  omen  of  good 
or  one  of  ill.  School  children  have  seen  changes  take  place 
in  the  world  which  octogenarians  have  not  hitherto  seen, 
and  among  these  changes  are  some  which  are  more  sig- 
nificant than  the  remaking  of  national  boundaries,  maps 
and  geographies.  They  affect  the  fundamental  things  in 
the  social,  political  and  intellectual  life  of  men,  and  there  is 
in  them  the  sweep  of  internationalism,  interracialism  and 
universalism.  The  intellectual  attitude,  the  moral  ideals, 
the  controlling  motives  and  ultimate  aims  of  men  are  af- 
fected. Christian  missions  must  now  certainly,  and  hence- 
forth probably,  take  account  of  this  changed  attitude  and 
new  human  temper,  and,  I  should  say,  must  seek  to  take 
advantage  of  these  because  we  believe  that  the  changes  which 
have  formed  the  new  world  order  make  opportunity  rather 
than  difficulty  for  missions.  This  we  believe  to  be  true  in 
particular  of  Baptist  missions.     The  changes  have  for  the 

57 


58  MISSIONARY  MESSAGES 

most  part  been  salutary.  They  have  tended  to  produce  a 
more  cordial  hospitality  for  the  simplicities  of  religion  as  ex- 
pounded in  the  Baptist  message.  But  of  this  we  can  judge 
better  with  some  of  the  characteristics  of  the  new  world 
order  before  us. 


What  then  are  some  of  the  marks  which  provoke  speakers 
and  writers  everywhere  to  designate  the  present  as  a  new 
world  order? 

1.  There  has  issued  out  of  the  past  half  dozen  years  a 
new  realization  of  a  community  of  human  interests.  Re- 
cent history  constitutes  a  commentary  upon  such  texts  as 
"No  man  liveth  unto  himself,"  "Am  I  my  brother's  keeper?" 
and  "Who  is  my  neighbor?"  No  nation  is  safe  in  its  in- 
difference to  the  welfare  of  any  other  nation.  It  has  been 
found  that  aloofness  is  impossible  to  any,  that  anything 
which  concerns  one  concerns  all.  The  whole  world  is  af- 
fected by  the  woes  or  the  depravity  of  any  single  member 
of  the  family  of  nations.  The  War  has  given  a  new  birth 
to  the  conviction  of  racial  unity. 

It  is,  however,  superficial  observation  which  draws  from 
these  facts  the  conclusion  that  national  distinctions  have 
grown  faint  while  racial  unity  has  grown  strong.  The  truth 
is  that  along  with  racial  unity  has  emerged  vigorous  national 
consciousness  and  self-assertion  in  every  nation  and  racial 
group  the  world  over.  There  is  a  new  glorying  in  nation- 
ality and  the  racial  family  group.  There  is  not  the  least 
probability  of  a  great  merger,  a  blend  of  nations  in  which 
the  original  racial  differentials  will  not  be  distinguishable. 
Indeed,  it  would  be  difficult  to  determine  whether  racial 
unity  or  national  independence  has  received  a  greater  im- 
petus from  the  War.  Nevertheless,  the  fact  stands  out  and 
cannot  be  mistaken,  that  an  element  of  the  new  world  order 
is  a  common  recognition  of  a  mutualness  of  interests  from 
which  no  nation  is  exempt. 

2.  A  recognition  of  race  obligation  is  another  mark  of  a 


NEW  WORLD  ORDER  59 

new  order.  There  is  not  only  a  realization  that  there  is  no 
escape  from  the  consequences  of  wrong  and  ill  anywhere, 
but  a  deep  and  idealistic  concern  for  the  unfortunate  every- 
where. Men  have  gone  beyond  the  self-interest  which  is 
concerned  for  the  common  weal  and  woe  of  nations.  They 
have  had  their  moral  sensibilities  aroused  and  a  new  altru- 
ism has  bloomed  on  the  tree  of  humanity.  There  never 
was  such  response  and  outpouring  of  compassion  as  has 
been  seen  in  recent  months.  This  has  not  been  produced 
by  an  instinct  for  self-protection  nor  the  fear  of  peril.  The 
record-breaking  philanthropies  are  not  born  of  a  fearful 
looking  for  of  judgment,  nor  practiced  as  a  means  of  appeas- 
ing Fate.  They  are  rather  expositions  of  Paul's  words,  "I 
am  debtor."  A  sense  of  moral  responsibility  for  men  every- 
where has  settled  upon  true  and  thoughtful  men  with  a 
weight  that  was  never  experienced  before. 

3.  Another  mark  of  the  new  world  order  is  a  deeper 
persuasion  of  the  immanence  of  God.  Men  called  upon 
God  while  the  battle  raged,  and  somehow  there  settled  in 
the  minds  of  soldiers  on  the  field,  statesmen  in  senate  cham- 
bers, men  at  their  desks  and  in  the  shops  that  God  was  "not 
far  from  every  one  of  us."  Millions  who  hitherto  were 
aliens  and  without  God  in  the  world  have  come  to  believe 
that  He  is  encountered  in  the  affairs  of  nations,  and  that 
we  must  give  account  to  Him  even  in  this  world.  Some 
men,  like  H.  G.  Wells,  have  their  brains  so  enmeshed  in  a 
net  of  philosophic  cobwebs  of  their  own  spinning  that  they 
can  not  very  intelligently  describe  their  new  consciousness 
of  God,  but  many  to  whom  God  was  before  the  War  but 
a  name  for  an  unreal  or  vastly  distant  being,  have  to-day 
a  persuasion  of  His  awful  immanence.  When  the  preacher 
talks  of  Jehovah  to  these  men  now  his  message  is  not 
heard  as  a  Norse  tale.  There  is  almost  terrible  realization 
of  God's  impending  judgments  over  men  and  nations  who 
forget  Him.  They  have  seen  a  nation  attempt  to  abrogate 
the  moral  code  and  believe  that  they  have  seen  God's  power 
and  witnessed  His  judgments.     To  such  henceforth 


6o  MISSIONARY  MESSAGES 

"Earth  is  crammed  with  heaven, 
And  every  common  bush  aflame  with  God." 

This  persuasion  is  expanding  among  men  and  nations. 

4,  Another  element  is  a  new  realization  of  the  superi- 
ority of  evangelical  Christianity  among  the  religions  of 
the  world  and  the  sects  of  Christendom.  The  nations  found 
in  the  W)ar  no  other  such  reliable  ally  as  the  evangelical 
churches  and  the  sufferers  from  war  have  no  other  such 
friends.  It  is  under  the  preaching  of  the  gospel  and  in 
the  atmosphere  of  worship  that  we  are  to  find  the  source 
and  impulse  of  disinterested  service  for  country  and  the 
world.  We  have  witnessed  in  the  momentous  years  of 
the  War  a  demonstration  of  the  value  of  evangelical  Chris- 
tianity upon  which  historians  will  in  the  future  certainly 
dwell.  While  the  Pope  was  playing  the  diplomat,  evangel- 
ical preachers  and  churches  were  making  positive  both  their 
patriotism  and  their  Christianity  by  floating  Liberty  Bonds, 
equipping  Red  Cross  corps,  and  preaching  Christ  in  the 
camps,  trenches  and  hospitals.  No  nation  has  a  dependable 
ally  like  unto  an  evangelical  citizenship.  The  War  has  left 
no  question  as  to  the  patriotism  of  such  citizens.  Roman 
Catholic  Ireland  and  Roman  Catholic  Canada  have  by  their 
behavior  during  the  War  brought  a  reproach  upon  Romanism 
which  it  will  never  remove  by  all  the  camouflage  of  which 
the  papacy  is  pastmaster,  nor  by  any  plausible  resolutions 
which  truculent  or  hoodwinked  congressmen  may  under 
the  influence  of  Rome's  agents  get  through  National  Assem- 
bly. No  nation  has  a  basis  of  patriotism  or  high  idealism 
in  a  consistent  Roman  Catholic  population.  This  com- 
panion fact  to  the  dependableness  of  evangelical  citizenship 
must  be  placed  with  the  things  which  frame  up  a  situation 
on  which  men  are  reaching  conclusions  and  which  impart 
distinguishing  characteristics  to  the  age. 

5.  Democracy,  the  ideal  and  goal  of  society,  is  another 
mark  of  the  new  order.  Note  that  I  say,  the  goal  of  so- 
ciety is  democracy.  Democracy  is  a  thing  hoped  for.  There 
have  been  disillusionments  as  well  as  experiments  in  de- 
mocracy during  the  eventful  months  which  have  elapsed 


NEW  WORLD  ORDER  6i 

since  October,  1918.  The  world  will  never  again  abandon 
the  ideal  of  democracy,  but  sensible  men  will  not,  in  the 
light  of  events,  over-idealize  concerning  it  nor  think  it  feasi- 
ble unduly  to  hasten  its  adoption  as  a  form  of  political  life 
for  every  nation.  Democracy  is  not  a  present  possibility 
for  all  nations  and  classes,  nor  is  it  a  panacea  for  all  the 
ills  of  any  division  or  class  of  society.  Men  must  be  pre- 
pared for  democracy  and  democracy  must  be  reinforced 
wherever  it  is  put  in  operation.  The  world  of  to- 
day gives  striking  instances  of  premature  experiments  in 
democracy.  These  facts  must  be  admitted,  but  they  do  not 
demand  the  abandonment  of  the  ideal,  nor  the  lowering 
of  the  standard  for  a  world  democracy  which  shall  free 
men  and  nations  from  autocracies  and  hierarchies  in  politics 
and  religion.  It  is  simply  a  statement  of  irrelevancies  when 
we  say  that  you  can  not  have  a  pure  religious  democracy 
under  a  political  autocracy,  nor  have  a  perfect  political 
democracy  with  religious  hierarchy.  Collision  in  either 
case  is  inevitable  at  certain  points.  But  men  have  found 
a  political  guiding  star  and  they  will  follow  it  until  diffi- 
culties in  the  way  of  democracy  are  removed  and  hope  of 
it  is  fulfilled  in  state  and  in  religion. 

6.  The  loud  insistence  upon  the  rational,  spiritual,  and 
practical  in  religion  is  another  characteristic  of  the  times. 
The  demand  is  made  and  sooner  or  later  all  religions  will 
have  to  square  to  it.  Every  step  in  intellectual  advance- 
ment, all  attainment  in  spiritual  psychology  and  the  practical 
humanities  adds  force  to  this  demand.  Nothing  in  the 
name  of  religion  will  eventually  be  tolerated  which  is  either 
irrational,  unspiritual  or  does  not  "bring  forth  fruits  meet 
for  repentance."  No  hoary  system  or  venerable  sanction 
will  save  religion  from  the  crucible.  No  ecclesiastical  sys- 
tem will  be  able  to  preserve  the  lifeless  and  inefficacious 
forms  which  characterize  certain  religious  bodies,  however 
perfect  and  formable  the  system  and  ornate  its  rituals. 
Religious  magic,  which  is  divorced  from  intelligence  and 
lacks  power  to  produce  spiritual  results,  will  be  dragged 
into  light  which  it  can  not  bear.    Only  that  religion  which 


62  MISSIONARY  MESSAGES 

is  validated  by  transparent  spiritual  life  and  commensurate 
deeds  of  human  service  can  survive  the  new  day  which  is 
breaking  everywhere. 


II 

These  are  some  of  the  characteristics  of  the  New  World 
Order.  What  bearing  have  they  upon  missions,  and  Baptist 
missions  in  particular? 

Christianity  now  enters  a  new  competition  with  all  other 
religions,  and  evangelical  Christianity  has  strengthened  its 
rivalry  with  Romanism.  The  superstitions  of  heathenism 
and  Romanism  alike  will  suffer  under  the  application  of  the 
new  standards  of  judgment  which  the  age  has  set  up  for 
religion.  Men  have  experienced  a  consciousness  of  God 
and  have  become  aware  of  reality  in  religion,  the  necessity 
for  religion,  and  no  substitute  or  superficiality  will  satisfy 
the  leaders  and  expounders  of  thought  henceforth.  The 
souls  of  men  have  had  such  experiences  during  the  past  six 
years  that  only  the  great  religious  realities  can  meet  their 
needs.  Gradually  but  certainly  this  disposition  of  mind 
and  heart  will  permeate  the  masses  everywhere.  It  has 
been  found,  too,  that  nothing  but  a  righteousness  begotten 
of  direct  response  to  the  immanent  God  can  guarantee 
the  moral  foundation  of  the  world  and  secure  society  from 
other  and  greater  catastrophes.  The  strength  of  society 
and  the  nation  is  to  be  secured  through  religious  vitalization, 
and  evangelical  Christianity  must  impart  this. 

Therefore,  to  win  in  the  field  of  missions,  evangelical 
Christianity  has  only  to  possess  itself  of  its  native  power, 
release  itself  from  all  devitalizing  accretions  of  ecclesiastical 
systems  and  of  mesmeric  rites  and  discharge  in  full  measure 
its  missionary  duty.  Christianity  was  endowed  at  the  begin- 
ning for  service  in  such  an  hour  as  this.  Kept  in  its  primi- 
tive purity  and  freedom,  it  is  equal  to  its  new  tasks.  In 
making  the  plea  for  Christian  unity,  some  writers  and 
speakers  have  inveighed  against  transplanting  to  the  mission 
fields  the  inheritances  from  historic  controversies,  local  and 


NEW  WORLD  ORDER  63 

national  provincialisms.  Good  advice  that,  if  only  it  is 
applied  where  it  is  needed ;  but  those  who  make  promiscuous 
application  of  it  do  not  show  the  courage  of  true  seers  and 
prophets.  Let  the  reformer  on  these  lines  stand  up  before 
the  guilty  sects  and  say,  "Thou  art  the  denomination." 
Those  denominations  which  have  cherished  inheritances 
from  sectarian  controversies  or  partisan  ecclesiastical  courts 
must  disrobe  themselves  of  these  outworn  and  mildewed 
garments. 

The  friends  who  are  raising  the  call  that  provincialisms 
be  discarded,  are  but  repeating  the  demand  which  Bap- 
tists have  made  from  time  immemorial,  only  these  speak- 
ers and  writers  have  not  had  the  courage  to  designate  the 
guilty  parties  and  frankly  to  give  honor  to  whom  honor 
is  due.  All  the  controversy  Baptists  have  ever  had  with 
other  Christians  has  been  over  this  very  matter  of  unscrip- 
tural  inheritances  from  periods,  localities,  parties,  historical 
creeds,  customs,  and  ecclesiasticisms.  Let  the  champion  of 
union  and  the  indigenous  church  give  us  credit  for  antici- 
pating them  by  ages  and  for  a  consistent  history,  and  join 
us  in  protest  against  these,  validating  their  sincerity  by 
abandoning  superfluous  forms  which  have  in  the  course  of 
history  and  controversy  attached  to  them.  We  desire  to 
see  on  the  mission  fields  a  church  unafllicted  by  accretions 
from  any  source;  but  that  which  mars  a  church  in  China 
mars  it  here.  A  Chinese  characteristic  attached  to  a  church 
is  quite  as  indefensible  as  a  British  characteristic,  Italian 
characteristic,  or  American  characteristic.  To  condemn 
inherited  nationalisms  in  religion  and  deliberately  to  go 
about  encouraging  others  to  bequeath  to  their  posterity  those 
of  their  race  or  nation  is  anomalous. 

But  this  is  a  crucible  age,  and  religion  will  be  tried  as 
by  fire.  The  hearts  of  men  ache  for  religious  certainty  and 
reality,  and  having  learned  what  it  is,  they  will  have  nothing 
else.  The  threefold  test  of  rationality,  spirituality  and  a 
practical  ministry  will  reduce  Christianity  in  many  quarters 
to  greater  simplicity.  There  is  no  escaping  consequences. 
iThe  day  will  declare  it. 


64  MISSIONARY  MESSAGES 

But  what  of  Baptist  missions  in  the  new  world  order? 
It  is  obvious,  I  think,  that  not  by  so  much  as  one  count 
do  these  facts  make  any  difficulty  for  Baptists.     Some  of 
them  make  new  opportunities   for  Baptist  missions.     The 
field  is  an  open  one  for  Baptists  if  they  are  ready  to  break 
camp  and  enter  upon  a  mighty  world  campaign.     The  cur- 
rents of  human  thought  are  favorable  for  the  Baptist  mes- 
sage.   Their  faith  is  the  nearest  religious  counterpart  of  the 
demands  which  the  new  age  is  making  upon  religion.     The 
things  which  the  leaders  of  men  to-day  are  insisting  upon 
are   in  many  great  matters   the   very   things   upon   which 
Baptists  have  always  insisted.     No  one  can  more  strongly 
or  consistently  plead  for  personal,  intelligent  choice  in  reli- 
gion, personal  and  vital  experiences  of  God,  spirituality  in 
religion,  and  a  pure  democracy,  than  Baptists  have  pro- 
claimed throughout  their  history.     If  these  are  marks  of 
the  new  age,  then  the  Baptist  message  meets  the  require- 
ments.   They  have  never  known  any  other  than  self-govern- 
ing and  self-propagating  churches.  Their  appeal  has  not  been 
to  Bunyan  or  Spurgeon,  to  history  or  ecclesiastical  court, 
but  to  Paul  and  Jesus,  to  the  divine  example  and  the  divine 
Word.     They  have  admitted  the  validity  of  nothing  for 
which  there  could  not  be  shown  a  "thus  saith  the  Lord," 
and  they  have  always  been  willing  to  be  called  before  this 
court  of  final  appeal,  the  inspired  Word  of  God,  for  an 
examination  of  their  faith.     The  new  world  order  brings 
them  their  missionary  opportunity.     The  demands  which  it 
makes  upon  religion  do  not  prove  embarrassing  to  intelligent 
and  consistent  Baptists.     They  have  no  creeds  to  revise, 
no  autocracies  to  apologize  for,  no  ecclesiastical  system  to 
reform,  and  no  mere  traditional  sins  or  conventionalities 
laden  their  missionary  bark.     No  man  or  set  of  men  can 
champion  a  greater  respect  for  human  personality,   abso- 
lute amenableness  to  the  voice  of  God,  provide  a  better 
guarantee  for  spiritual  religion,  or  advocate  a  more  thor- 
oughgoing democracy  than  Baptists  are  now  preaching  from 
more  than  50,000  pulpits  in  America  and  have  preached 
to  their  fellow  men  from  the  first  days  of  the  republic,  not 


NEW  WORLD  ORDER  65 

to  mention  their  witness-bearing  to  the  Truth  in  other  lands. 
To  these  things  they  have  given  their  martyrs  while  yet 
others  were  transplanting  in  America  the  seeds  of  old-world 
controversies  against  Baptist  protest.  It  is  now  these  latter, 
and  not  the  Baptists,  who  need  to  abandon  sectarianisms 
and  make  their  churches  indigenous  in  America  after  the 
true  New  Testament  pattern  before  calling  on  others  to  do 
this  on  the  mission  fields. 


Ill 

But  what  have  Baptists  to  do  to  meet  the  requirements 
of  the  times,  to  justify  their  contention  and  demonstrate 
on  the  field  of  missions  that  their  faith  is  a  necessity  and  a 
remedy  for  a  world  in  need?  How  shall  Baptists  make 
use  of  this  new  opportunity  and  set  up  in  the  midst  of  the 
nations  the  kingdom  of  God? 

1.  They  must  proclaim  their  message,  and  they  must 
do  this  without  timidity  and  with  evangeHstic  passion. 
Their  simple  message  contains  the  richest  values  of  the 
gospel.  These  must  be  imparted  to  a  distraught  world  with 
all  haste  and  diligence.  In  all  important  elements  their 
message  is  a  counterpart  of  the  needs  and  the  demands 
which  obtain  in  the  new  world  order.  Victory  for  mis- 
sions is  in  the  missionary  message  conditioned  only  upon 
the  faithfulness  and  passion  with  which  it  is  preached 
and  the  divine  presence  which  is  guaranteed  to  such  loyalty 
and  devotion.  Positive  preaching  and  positive  preaching 
only  has  victories  to  its  credit  in  any  land  or  age.  Any 
slighting  emphasis  upon  the  elementary  principles  of  the 
gospel,  any  hesitation  to  declare  the  full  counsel,  whether 
due  to  deference  or  to  fear,  any  attempt  to  advance  under 
the  standard  of  an  interrogation  point,  will  cost  Baptists 
the  sublimest  opportunity  they  have  ever  faced  and  the 
subllmest  now  given  to  any  religious  party.  If  after  two 
thousand  years  we  have  no  certain,  positive  missionary  mes- 
sage, we  are  in  a  pitiful  plight.  But  we  have,  thank  God, 
for  we  have  the  original  Commission  without  alterations, 


66  MISSIONARY  MESSAGES 

additions  or  accretions.  The  imperious  mandate  of  the 
Book  and  of  the  times  in  which  we  live  is,  "Preach  the 
Word."  With  this  sword  of  the  Spirit  we  shall  win  our 
victories. 

The  missionary  enterprise  includes  a  multiform  work. 
Christianity  is  as  complex  and  comprehensive  in  one  land 
as  another.  The  life  of  God  in  the  soul  expresses  itself 
in  a  varied  human  service.  It  will  find  channels  of  bless- 
ings for  society  in  China  as  it  has  in  America.  There  is 
nothing  which  conditions  life  that  will  not  feel  the  influ- 
ence of  the  divine  life  begotten  by  the  Word  wherever  that 
life  takes  root  in  any  nation.  Of  this  there  can  be  no 
question.  But  the  foreign  missionary  enterprise  is  dealing 
with  primary  things.  It  is  set  for  the  introduction  of  the 
leaven  of  the  gospel  into  the  society  of  China,  India,  Africa. 
To  secure  the  connection  of  the  Christian  dynamic  with 
humanity  on  the  mission  field  is  the  first  and  main  thing 
with  which  the  missionary  and  missionary  agency  are 
charged.  Whatever  is  indispensable  to  this  initial  work  is  a 
part  of  missionary  operations.  Those  things  which  lie 
beyond  these  requirements,  although  they  belong  to  a  full 
and  complete  Christian  society,  have,  to  say  the  very  least, 
secondary  claim  upon  mission  boards  and  missionaries.  The 
gospel  is  itself  a  creative  and  habilitating  force  in  society. 
A  sufficient  supply  of  pure  gospel  will  transform  any  com- 
munity, improve  sanitation,  raise  social  standards  and  start 
up  the  necessary  forms  of  social  service,  even  though  the 
preachers  give  themselves  "continually  to  prayer  and  to  the 
ministry  of  the  Lord." 

The  missionary  on  the  ground  will  find  his  relation  to 
social  questions,  but  the  motive  of  his  going,  like  the  terms 
of  the  Commission  under  which  he  goes,  takes  these  things 
for  granted.  They  are  consequential  and  not  primary.  The 
missionary  goes  as  an  evangelist  and  not  as  a  reformer,  but 
his  evangel  is  transforming,  which  is  far  better.  Better 
houses,  better  clothes,  better  conditions  of  life  generally 
spring  up  along  the  path  which  the  missionary's  feet  have 
trod  and  along  whose  borders  he  has  scattered  the  precious 


NEW  WORLD  ORDER  (y-j 

seeds  of  the  gospel.  The  man  who  makes  it  his  vocation  to 
call  men  into  fellowship  with  God  will  create  a  clean  and 
wholesome  society  whether  he  ever  heard  of  a  social  club 
or  read  a  book  on  sociology.  To  make  these  latter  things 
the  engaging  concern  in  a  missionary's  life  is  to  court 
disaster  for  the  missionary  enterprise.  This  simply  is  not 
the  scheme  which  Jesus  announced  for  the  missionary  enter- 
prise, and  hence  must  fail.  The  transforming,  fertilizing 
gospel  is  to  be  the  chief  concern  of  those  who  seek  to  save 
a  lost  world. 

We  put  it  down  with  deliberation  after  having  studied 
with  some  diligence  missionary  problems  at  home  and  abroad, 
that  if  there  is  cause  for  alarm  anywhere  and  the  success 
of  the  missionary  enterprise  is  threatened  from  any  quar- 
ter, it  is  from  this,  that  a  few  schools  from  which  mission- 
aries are  turned  out  are  reticent  concerning  the  message 
which  the  mission  boards  are  appointed  to  promulgate,  and 
which  missionaries  are  commissioned  to  proclaim.  And 
next  to  this  is  the  tutoring  which  substitutes  social  service 
"leadership"  and  big  office  administration  at  home  and 
abroad  for  the  simple  evangelistic  method  of  the  New  Tes- 
tament. The  Baptist  denomination  cannot  meet  its  mission- 
ary obligation  and  opportunity,  nor  perpetuate  itself  through 
men  who  have  been  inoculated  with  such  ideals  for  mis- 
sionary service.  Wisely,  Baptists  have  always  made  ample 
room  for  independent  thought  and  speech,  both  in  and 
without  the  denomination.  The  day  is  now  too  near  the 
noontide  for  any  one  to  introduce  dark  inquisitional  methods 
in  dealing  with  either  schools  or  men;  but,  if  we  have  a 
mission,  we  have  a  message.  I  would  say  we  have  a  mis- 
sion because  we  have  a  message. 

Uncertainty,  doubt,  equivocation,  or  reticence  concerning 
the  fundamental  elements  of  that  message  and  the  distin- 
guishing principles  of  the  denomination  are  marks  of  neither 
superior  intellectual  ability  or  independence,  nor  a  sign  of 
qualification  for  service  in  the  new  world  order.  This  world 
order  is  challenging  Baptists  and  daring  them  to  prove  that 
their  message  and  their  method  are  equal  to  a  great  oppor- 


68  MISSIONARY  MESSAGES 

tunity.  We  ought  not  to  be  cheated  out  of  the  complete 
demonstration  that  we  are  making.  That  any  one  in  re- 
sponsible denominational  position  should  from  unwillingness 
or  whatever  cause  be  reticent  about  telling  what  he  believes 
concerning  the  constituent  elements  in  the  Christian  mission- 
ary message  or  articles  of  Baptist  faith  does  not  savor  of 
candid  dealing  with  his  constituency  nor  comport  with  the 
contention  for  freedom  of  speech.  The  peril  is  too  great  for 
reticence  concerning  the  missionary  message  to  be  popular- 
ized as  a  standard  among  us.  The  missionary  is  a  pro- 
claimer.  Candor  of  soul  is  a  mark  of  his  genuineness  and 
worth.  Those  who  deal  with  young  missionaries  should 
reflect  that  they  are  to  be  the  bearers  of  messages  of  life 
and  the  representatives  of  the  missionary  conscience  of  the 
home  constituency.  It  is  men  with  a  message  and  a  con- 
science for  it  who  will  let  loose  among  the  nations  of  the 
earth  revolutionizing,  energizing  forces  and  open  springs  of 
human  ministry.  The  triumphant  and  joyful  acclaim  of  one 
of  the  first  missionaries  of  this  gospel  was,  "In  Christ 
Jesus  I  have  begotten  you  through  the  gospel."  The  gospel 
fecundates  human  souls.  The  essential  elements  of  that 
gospel  are  too  few  and  too  unmistakably  set  forth  in  the 
New  Testament  for  anybody  to  qualify  for  missionary 
service  who  does  not  know  them,  believe  them,  and  in 
conscience  avow  them. 

2.  Baptists  of  the  world  must  find  each  other  and  agree 
upon  coordinated  and  concerted  effort  for  the  proclamation 
of  their  message.  We  are  to  deal  with  a  new  world  order. 
The  challenge  and  opportunity  is  universal  in  magnitude. 
No  single  group  or  organization  of  Baptists  is  equal  to  such 
a  task.  The  full  effort  of  all  at  their  best  and  in  concert 
of  action  will  be  required  to  take  care  of  the  opportunities 
which  the  world  offers. 

Speaking  now  to  Southern  Baptists  in  particular,  I  would 
say  that  we  can  neither  justify  our  independence  of  inter- 
denominational alliance,  nor  demonstrate  the  value  of  a 
denominational  program  if  we  do  not  set  ourselves  to  a 
truly  great  missionary  service  and  seek  to  coordinate  the 


NEW  WORLD  ORDER  69 

missionary  effort  of  the  respective  groups  of  Baptists  in  all 
the  world.  We  have  by  a  firm,  but  for  the  most  part  broth- 
erly and  dignified  course  gained  much  by  declining  to  be 
entangled  by  any  of  the  big,  overlapping,  extravagant  and 
ineffective  organizations.  These  organizations  have  crowded 
us  into  relief  before  the  eyes  of  the  world,  and  now  the 
world  is  waiting  to  see  what  we  will  do  and  what  we  have 
to  say  which  is  of  missionary  value  to  the  world.  If  indeed 
we  have  a  message,  and  we  covet  opportunity  for  great 
service,  nothing  more  fortunate  could  have  befallen  us  than 
the  present  challenge,  but  nothing  less  than  great  service  is 
becoming  and  nothing  else  will  save  us  from  the  reproach 
of  men.  But  again,  if  we  are  to  render  such  a  service,  a 
Baptist  entente  cordiate  is  necessary.  Doubtless,  there  will 
be  found  many  difficulties  and  discouragements  in  working 
our  terms  and  plans  of  cooperation,  but  courage  and  grace 
under  the  stress  of  great  emergency  and  opportunity  in  mis- 
sionary service  will  find  a  way. 

Europe  illustrates  the  necessity  for  this  alliance.  The 
great  war  has  lifted  to  the  eyes  of  the  world  and  left  on  our 
hands  a  great  mission  field  in  Europe.  Already  important 
posts  are  manned  by  heroes  of  our  faith,  but  these  are  inse- 
curely held  by  these  small  intrepid  companies  at  different 
p'oints  on  the  continent.  These  cannot  hold  the  lines  and 
advance  them  without  our  help,  and  we  cannot  do  it  ignor- 
ing them.  A  practical  plan  must  be  worked  out  by  the 
administrative  agencies  of  the  denomination  here  and  there 
by  which  the  combined  influence  of  the  Baptists  of  America 
and  the  scattered  groups  of  Baptists  in  Europe  may  be  cen- 
tered at  imperiled  and  important  positions.  There  are  thrill- 
ing possibilities  in  such  an  effort.  The  vision  of  the  whole 
Baptist  brotherhood  in  concerted  action  for  the  promulgation 
of  our  missionary  message  throughout  this  modern  world 
haunts  one  day  and  night.  Southern  Baptists  have  no  de- 
signs upon  any  group  of  their  brethren  anywhere  except  to 
reen force  them  in  effectual  witness  to  the  truth  with  which 
the  denomination  is  entrusted. 

Among  the  many  needs  of  Europe,  the  need  of  the  gospel 


yo  MISSIONARY  MESSAGES 

is  the  greatest.  As  great  as  is  temporal  want  among  the 
people  of  Europe,  they  need  the  gospel  of  Christ  more  than 
philanthropies.  The  War  has  not  ended  war  because  it  has 
not  slain  jealousy,  suspicion,  envy,  hate,  and  greed.  The 
War  was  the  result  of  an  attempt  at  salvation  by  education. 
It  proved  futile  and  disastrous.  Already  the  signs  are 
evident  that  salvation  by  democracy  is  equally  futile.  What 
is  the  effective  remedy  ?  What  can  go  to  the  root  of  moral 
being  and  cure  such  faults  as  enmity,  hate,  greed,  suspicion  ? 
We  have  the  answer,  "The  words  that  I  speak  unto  you,  they 
are  spirit,  they  are  life,"  "If  the  truth  shall  make  you  free, 
ye  shall  be  free  indeed."  Christ  Jesus  only  is  made  unto 
men  and  nations  "wisdom  and  righteousness  and  sanctifica- 
tion  and  redemption."  Great  issues  are  pending  in  Europe 
and  great  opportunities  are  afforded  Amxcrican  Christianity. 
Our  Baptist  family-tree  is  rooted  in  Europe  and  we  need 
to  recognize  our  obligation  to  our  brothers  who  are  on  the 
old  estate. 

A  recent  book  by  C.  H.  Robinson  tells  the  story  of  the 
conversion  of  Europe.  In  its  remarkable  condensation  of 
a  long  period  of  European  missionary  history,  it  cites  the 
fact  that  the  conversion  of  continental  peoples  was  super- 
ficial. The  author  says,  "The  war  demonstrates  the  truth 
of  the  assertion  that  the  conversion  of  Europe  as  a  whole 
has  been  superficial,  and  that  its  reconversion  is  a  task 
that  has  to  be  faced  by  the  Christian  church."  In  the 
collapse  of  old  civilizations  we  have  the  failure  of  human 
experiments  and  the  token  that  the  world  may  now  get  a 
new  start.  If  the  right  forces  can  be  applied  to  the  moral 
impulses  and  powers  of  men  a  beautiful  and  fruitful  human- 
ity may  grow  out  of  the  pulverized  civilizations  of  Europe. 
We  believe  tremendously  in  the  Christian  potentialities  of 
Germany  if,  instead  of  a  semi-conversion,  this  wonderful 
people  can  be  regenerated  by  the  power  of  God.  France, 
too,  may  yet  furnish  missionaries  for  the  evangelical  faith 
as  many  and  as  strong  as  she  has  furnished  Romanism. 

American  Baptists  dare  not  stand  aloof  and  look  with 
indifference   upon    religious    conditions    in    Europe.      Our 


NEW  WORLD  ORDER  ^l 

brethren  there  need  to  hear  the  shout  of  comradeship.  Most 
European  Baptists  hold  in  great  jealousy  a  sound  evan- 
gelicalism. American  Baptists  can  furnish  much  mate- 
rial aid  and  by  their  spirit  of  brotherliness  and  evangelistic 
spirit  impassion  their  European  brothers  in  the  task  of 
soul-winning. 


CHAPTER  V 

BAPTIST  WOMEN  IN  THE  BAPTIST  WORLD  PROGRAM 

MEN  may  not  always  have  been  frank  enough  to  say 
SO,  but  they  have  ahvays  known  their  need  of  women 
in  every  good  cause.  As  our  conception  of  the  sphere  of 
Christian  duty  has  expanded  and  conviction  has  deepened 
that  Christian  principles  and  standards  should  be  applied  to 
all  the  activities  and  relations  of  life,  the  sense  of  this  need 
of  woman's  help  has  increased  correspondingly.  It  remains 
true  that  her  influence  is  still  needed  in  the  home  and  that 
she  should  there  find  her  supreme  opportunity  to  achieve 
her  greatest  triumphs.  She  can  from  this  seat  of  empire 
extend  the  beneficence  of  her  reign  while  contributing  to  the 
security  of  her  throne.  Woman  must  give  first  attention 
to  the  life  and  influences  within  the  walls  of  her  home, 
for  if  she  neglects  to  do  this,  there  is  left  no  one  to  guard 
this  citadel  of  civilization.  But  in  our  jealousy  for  the 
home  we  have  become  concerned  for  the  atmosphere  which 
surrounds  it,  and  woman  can  help  men  make  this  atmosphere 
pure.  She  is  needed  to  help  fix  the  social  life  and  standards 
which  belt  the  home  about.  Operating  from  her  home,  made 
full  and  complete  by  her  influence,  she  can  effect  results  in 
community  welfare.  We  have  learned  that  moral  standards 
cannot  be  maintained  anywhere  without  her  help.  Beyond 
the  pale  of  her  positive  Christian  influence  begin  the  arid  or 
miasmic  moral  zones.  Where  she  does  not  reenforce  men 
in  fixing  and  applying  moral  standards,  these  are  low  and 
both  men  and  women  suffer  in  consequence. 

It  is  evident  to  all  discerning  observers  that  women  are 
both  victims  and  agents  of  the  immoralities  and  vices  which 
afflict  civilization.  There  is  no  blinking  the  fact  that  woman 
is  both  held  down  by  low  moral  standards  and  that  she 
help's  to  make  low  moral  standards  for  others.     This  is  a 

72 


BAPTIST  WOMEN  73 

fact  so  significant  and  consequential  that  discussion  of  it 
should  not  be  avoided  through  timidity  or  false  deference. 
If  men  or  women  fail  in  wisdom  and  courage  in  facing  this 
fact,  both  will  pay  a  heavy  penalty.  Men  cannot  rise  in  the 
moral  scale  without  the  help  of  women  and  no  man  will 
long  be  content  to  live  on  a  low  moral  plane  without  the 
companionship  of  woman.  He  cannot  rise  without  her,  and 
without  her  example  and  influence  lacks  motive  to  try.  Her 
influence  is  positively  good  or  it  is  positively  bad.  She 
either  lifts  up  or  she  pulls  down.  There  is  in  civilization 
no  moral  problem  which  does  not  concern  her  both  as  an 
object  and  an  agent. 

When  we  come  to  consider  religious  life  and  relations, 
the  evidence  of  woman's  influence  and  the  indispensableness 
of  her  help  are  equally  impressive.  Her  influence  sweetens 
church  fellowship.  There  is  no  complete  church  life  without 
her.  The  devout  women  promote  devotion.  They  incite 
worship,  chasten  the  spirit  of  man,  and  inspire  Christian 
activity.  The  larger  the  religious  program,  the  more  im- 
portant it  is  that  women  shall  find  their  relation  to  it.  We 
do  not  propose  to  discuss  just  what  the  New  Testament 
teaches  as  to  woman's  personal  and  officml  relations  to  pub- 
lic and  organized  Christianity.  The  book  which  expounds 
the  New  Testament  on  that  relationship  has  not  yet  been 
written,  though  it  is  needed.  Conditions  and  circumstances 
challenge  the  times  to  produce  a  man  with  sufficient  courage 
and  sufficiently  void  of  prepossessions  to  interpret  exactly 
the  New  Testament  as  to  what  is  the  difference,  if  any,  be- 
tween the  personal  privileges,  rights,  and  opportunities  to 
which  the  New  Testament  admits  women,  and  the  limit 
which  it  fixes  upon  her  official  relation  to  organised  Chris- 
tianity. We  are,  however,  discussing  the  value  and  indis- 
pensableness of  woman's  help  In  religious  life  and  work, 
about  which  there  Is  no  dispute.  The  expanding  work  of 
the  churches  lays  claims  upon  our  women  and  makes  their 
help  increasingly  necessary  if  this  work  is  not  to  suffer. 

Turn  your  eyes  to  the  mission  fields.  During  recent 
months  Baptists  have  broken  new  ground  and  begun  a  new 


74  MISSIONARY  MESSAGES 

chapter  in  the  history  of  Foreign  Missions.  It  is  doubtful 
that  there  has  ever  been  a  more  significant  three  years  in  the 
history  of  the  Baptist  people  than  that  which  has  followed 
the  close  of  the  Great  War.  We  have  enlarged  the  bounds 
of  our  operations.  We  have  made  a  missionary  program 
which  is  worthy  of  a  great  people.  The  process  of  setting 
up  this  program  is  well  advanced.  It  is,  therefore,  an 
opportune  time  to  lay  on  the  hearts  of  our  sisters  this  greater 
task  in  which  their  help  is  needed,  and  in  the  promotion  of 
which  they  must  have  an  honorable  and  important  part  and 
bear  great  responsibility. 

My  own  thinking  has  undergone  changes,  and  my  heart 
has  felt  a  burden  which  it  never  felt  before,  as  I  have 
studied  woman's  condition  on  some  of  the  foreign  mission 
fields,  and  have  come  better  to  understand  her  deep  distress 
and  needs,  her  capacity,  and  her  intimate  relation  to  all  that 
we  are  trying  to  do  on  the  behalf  of  the  nations ;  and  I  have 
learned  to  think  of  our  women  at  home  as  the  indispensable 
helpers  in  making  Foreign  Missions  the  effectual  relief  for 
what  I  have  seen.  With  my  growing  acquaintance  with  mis- 
sion fields,  mission  work,  and  mission  problems,  nothing  has 
impressed  me  more  than  the  woman  problem  in  Foreign 
Missions  and  Christian  civilization. 

Turn  then,  will  you,  to  the  expanded  and  expanding  mis- 
sion fields.  Take  a  map  of  the  world  and  look  up  the  coun- 
tries in  which  our  Foreign  Mission  Board  is  now  at  work. 
Make  a  careful  study  of  the  expanse  and  population  of 
Japan,  China,  Africa,  Mexico,  the  South  American  Repub- 
lics, Italy,  and  the  nations  of  Europe,  and  our  fields  in  the 
Near  East.  Study  the  strategy  in  missionary  conquest  of 
Europe  which  includes  the  Balkans  and  the  distressed  but 
potential  country  of  Russia.  If  you  would  get  a  still  more 
adequate  impression  of  the  Baptist  World  Program  in  which 
the  Baptist  people  have  taken  their  place,  look  up  the  coun- 
tries in  which  Northern  Baptists,  Canadian  Baptists,  British, 
German,  Swedish,  and  other  Baptist  groups,  are  seeking  to 
extend  the  borders  of  the  Kingdom  of  God.  At  last  our 
Baptist  people  are  a  world  power.     They  have  in  their 


BAPTIST  WOMEN  75 

faith  and  devotion  to  Christ  a  worid  league  through  which 
they  can  secure  concerted  action  throughout  their  scattered 
ranks,  and  close  and  concentrated  impact  of  influence  wher- 
ever need  and  opportunity  challenge  them  throughout  the 
world. 

We  shall  henceforth  as  never  before  be  fulfilling  the  Great 
Commission;  we  shall  preach  the  gospel  in  all  the  world, 
and  more  truly  than  ever  to  "every  creature."  We  must, 
however,  understand  that  in  a  campaign  so  great  we  need 
the  steady  support  of  the  women.  We  shall  quail  before 
our  enemies  and  victories  will  be  suspended  if  woman's  in- 
fluence is  not  constant  and  strong  in  support  of  our  advanc- 
ing lines ;  and  we  shall  fail  to  carry  into  the  civilizations  on 
the  mission  fields  the  healing  of  the  gospel  of  Christ  which 
men  and  women  both  need,  if  our  women  do  not  there  illus- 
trate the  graces  of  our  Christianity  and  dispense  as  only 
women  can,  a  ministry  of  compassion  and  gentleness.  These 
vast  mission  fields  present  needs  of  women  which  the  women 
at  home  dare  not  ignore,  nor  fail  to  qualify  themselves  to 
meet. 

We  would  point  out  some  facts  which  seem  to  us  call 
for  the  thoughtful  consideration  of  our  women,  and  suggest 
their  place  in  the  Baptist  World  Program. 


The  Place  of  Women  on  the  Field  in  This  Program 

1.  Women  are  discriminated  against  on  all  mission  fields. 
In  no  heathen,  Mohammedan,  or  Catholic  country  in  the 
world  has  woman  risen  above  severe  limitations  upon  her 
personality.  She  has  not  and  quite  probably  will  not  escape 
the  most  cruel  discrimination  without  the  help  of  Chris- 
tianity. There  is  no  exception  to  the  rule  in  all  the  world, 
although  the  injustice  varies  here  and  there.  It  is  in  the 
lands  of  evangelical  Christianity,  and  in  these  lands  alone, 
that  woman's  personality  is  reverenced,  her  rights  respected, 
her  capacities  recognized,  and  the  opportunities  for  full  self- 


76  MISSIONARY  MESSAGES 

expression  and  the  most  fruitful  service  to  the  race  are 
accorded  her.  In  other  lands  she  is  not  admitted  to  equality, 
nor  are  her  powers  recognized  to  be  equal  with  those  of 
men.  In  many  heathen  lands  her  youth  is  bartered.  Men 
buy  as  many  wives  as  they  can  support,  and  young  girls  are 
at  a  premium  in  this  most  cruel  of  all  slave  markets.  The 
wife  must  not  companion  with  her  husband  on  equality.  She 
must  see  that  her  husband  is  fed,  but  keep  in  the  background. 
In  Mohammedan  lands  she  is  not  allowed  to  enter  the 
mosque.  Her  presence  would  defile  the  place  of  religious 
worship.  In  Africa  she  is  the  burden  bearer.  In  China  she 
is  maimed  with  the  beginning  of  childhood  and  hobbles 
through  Hfe  in  torture.  In  countries  which  Rome  dominates 
she  is  too  frequently  given  dress  and  ornaments  only  to 
make  her  a  more  attractive  plaything,  and  not  because  of 
peculiar  veneration  for  her  personality.  Refined,  cultured 
womanhood,  dowered  with  the  rights  of  her  personality  and 
the  op'portunities  for  its  development,  are  found  in  those 
lands  only  where  evangelical  Christianity  has  broken  or 
prevented  the  dominance  of  heathenism  and  Catholicism. 
In  all  other  lands  she  is  maimed  in  mind  and  soul,  and 
civilization  suffers  in  consequence. 

2.  Women  suffer  disabilities  in  consequence  of  false  re- 
ligion. They  are  victims  of  disease  which  superstition 
fosters.  Their  own  bodies  and  the  bodies  of  their  children 
suffer  because  of  retarded  science  and  of  quack  doctors. 
In  America  we  have  one  docto-r  to  every  2,000  of  our 
population.  In  China  there  is  one  doctor  to  two  millions 
of  the  population,  and  in  some  provinces  one  doctor  to  five 
millions.  In  many  districts  of  China  where  men,  women, 
and  children  suffer  the  physical  consequences  of  heathen- 
ism and  the  low  moral  standards  which  it  fosters,  patients 
in  desperate  need  of  quick  attention  are  as  far  from  a 
doctor  as  San  Francisco  is  from  New  York,  if  we  take  into 
account  the  time  that  it  will  take  to  get  the  patient  to  the 
doctor.  The  days  of  journey  required  to  place  a  patient  in 
a  Christian  hospital  are  in  many  cases  consumed  in  wheel- 
barrow travel  which  adds  to  the  desperateness  of  the  case, 


BAPTIST  WOMEN  ^y 

and  frequently  costs  the  life  of  the  patient  en  route.  Heath- 
enism does  not  build  hospitals,  nor  train  skillful  doctors, 
nor  compound  healing  medicines,  nor  prepare  nurses  for  the 
sick.  Native  doctors  more  often  aggravate  disease  and 
increase  the  torture  of  the  suffering  than  relieve  it.  Sev- 
enty million  women  in  China  are  on  their  way  through  life 
with  bound  feet,  and  native  doctors  see  in  this  nothing 
incongruous  with  their  profession.  Native  priests  offer  no 
rebuke  of  parental  cruelty  which  maims  children  for  life. 

Women  in  heathen  and  papal  lands  are  the  victims  of 
ignorance.  In  India  one  woman  in  a  hundred  can  read. 
In  China  one  in  a  thousand,  and  in  some  parts  perhaps  ten 
in  a  million.  Even  in  Continental  Europe,  where  Roman 
Catholicism  and  Greek  Catholicism  are  strong  and  have 
had  centuries  in  which  to  work  out  their  ideals  among  some 
of  the  most  capacious  people  of  the  globe,  the  education  of 
women  is  in  the  background.  There  has  been  grown  no 
conscience  for  the  training  of  w^omen  and  no  admission  of 
a  place  for  her  in  the  potential  forces  of  Christianity.  The 
progeny  of  Romanism  as  well  as  heathenism  is  ignorance, 
superstition,  and  the  severest  limitation  upon  personality, 
and  especially  upon  the  personality  of  women.  Perhaps 
American  Christianity  has  no  greater  task  than  to  revolu- 
tionize the  thinking  of  men  in  Europe  with  regard  to 
woman's  education  and  her  preparation  for  Christian  service 
on  the  Continent. 

3.  Along  with  these  facts  take  this  other :  The  women 
and  children  are  the  first  beneficiaries  of  missions  on  all 
fields.  The  missionary  visitor,  usually  a  woman,  carries  the 
first  light  of  Christianity  into  the  desolate  homes  of  women 
and  children.  These  unfortunate,  neglected,  and  oppressed 
ones  thus  have  their  first  acquaintance  with  a  new  tender- 
ness and  personal  consideration  which  fairly  sets  their  aching 
hearts  aquiver.  They  are  recognized  as  somebody!  They 
are  treated  as  human  creatures.  They  have  in  such  visits 
and  in  the  ministry  which  the  missionary  practices  the  first 
token  of  a  religion  that  admits  women  to  the  full  privileges 
and  bestows  on  her  the  copious  blessings  of  religion.    The 


78  MISSIONARY  MESSAGES 

sick  are  carried  by  missionaries  to  hospitals  and  nursed 
with  tender  care  and  affectionate  regard  as  if  they  had  claim 
upon  respect  and  love.  New  hopes  are  revived;  a  new 
light  is  kindled  in  the  eye.  As  one  by  one  they  find  the 
explanation  of  these  tender  ministries,  they  yield  up  their 
hearts  joyfully  to  the  Saviour,  becoming  the  possessors  of 
His  love. 

It  is  not  surprising,  therefore,  that  the  first  converts,  and 
the  majority,  are  women  and  children.  Say  all  that  you  can 
say  for  the  work  of  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Association, 
you  must  confess  it  a  defective  organization  in  fulfilling  the 
Commission  which  commands  that  the  gospel  shall  be 
preached  to  every  creature.  The  Y.  M.  C.  A.,  avowedly 
without  direct  mission  to  women  and  children,  overlooks 
the  greatest  sufferers  and  those  who  bear  the  consequences 
of  greatest  neglect  and  injustice.  The  churches  of  Christ, 
with  their  full-orbed  missionary  program  to  expound  the 
Great  Commission,  are  the  only  agencies  that  will  ever 
correct  the  chief  ills  which  heathenism  and  Romanism  im>- 
pose  upon  the  race. 

4.  Another  fact :  Women  are  the  chief  conservators  of 
religion.  This  applies  to  papal  and  pagan  faiths,  and  can 
be  depended  upon  for  evangelical  Christianity.  Says  Dr. 
Groesbeck,  "The  strongholds  of  heathenism  are  in  the  heart 
of  women.  These  strongholds  cannot  be  stormed,  but 
must  be  taken  by  milder  means  of  love  and  service."  That 
religion  which  neglects  womanhood  will  itself  be  neglected 
finally.  We  shall  never  conquer  Japan,  nor  China,  nor 
Africa,  nor  Europe  for  Christ  until  this  stronghold  of 
woman's  love  and  fidelity  is  taken,  and  we  shall  never 
take  this  without  the  help  of  our  sisters  and  comrades  in 
service.  No  one  is  so  well  fitted  for  effectual  ministry 
to  women  and  children  as  woman. 

5.  Women  hold  the  strategic  positions  on  the  mission 
fields.  They  hold  guard  over  the  home  and  over  the  im- 
pressionable years  of  childhood.  We  shall  never  kindle  altar 
fires  in  the  dark  lands  without  her  help,  and  these  fires 
will  never  be  smothered  if  her  religious  enthusiasm  fans 


BAPTIST  WOMEN  79 

them.  Is  the  decline  of  family  altars  in  the  Qiristian  homes 
of  America  expository  of  a  new  type  of  womanhood?  If 
it  is,  that  fact  is  the  greatest  rebuke  to  Christian  women 
I  know. 

Let  us  not  make  the  mistake  of  supposing  that  the  humble 
place  which  women  in  heathen  lands  hold  is  indicative  of  a 
feeble  personality.  I  assure  you  on  the  observations  of 
all  who  have  made  observation  in  China,  that  w^omen  there 
are  comparatively  as  potential  as  in  America.  The  effort 
to  suppress  her  personality  has  maimed  but  has  not  slain 
the  innate  force  of  womanhood  which  dwells  in  every  Chi- 
nese woman.  She  is  not  a  figurehead.  She  is  a  victim  of  a 
false  social  order,  and  has  a  false  respect  for  social  custom 
which  makes  her  submissive  to  a  degree  to  assumed  mascu- 
line superiority  and  to  conform  too  readily  to  social  abuse. 
Under  such  conditions  you  will  not  understand  her  unless 
you  look  beneath  custom.  There  you  will  find  many  signs 
of  her  irrepressible  force  of  character.  A  story  told  me 
by  a  missionary  in  China  will  perhaps  illustrate  my  meaning. 
A  Chinese  gentleman  asked  the  missionary,  "Do  your  men 
in  America  rule  the  women,  or  do  the  women  rule  the  men?" 
The  missionary  replied,  ''Well,  the  men  think  they  rule  the 
women,  but  as  a  matter  of  fact  the  women  boss  the  men." 
The  Chinese  gentleman's  face  lighted  up,  and  he  said,  "The 
same  way  in  China!" 

Women  suffer  their  feet  to  be  boimd  in  China  not  be- 
cause they  are  too  weak  to  resist  the  will  of  man,  but  for 
the  same  reason  that  women  in  America  dress  outlandishly : 
they  are  slaves  to  custom,  and  in  that  respect  show  their 
chief  weakness.  Carry  the  gospel  of  Jesus  into  the  homes, 
into  the  domestic  and  social  life  of  women,  and  you  have 
touched  the  springs  of  civilization  and  taken  a  strategic 
stronghold  for  Christian  missionary  advance.  Christian 
women,  who  themselves  have  been  emancipated  from  social 
slavery,  are  to  be  God's  messengers  and  woman's  emanci- 
pators in  China  and  in  other  lands. 

6.  Christian  womanhood  on  the  mission  field  becomes  the 
most  convincing  and  irrefutable  polemic  of  our  Christianity. 


8o  MISSIONARY  MESSAGES 

Women  in  China,  India,  and  Africa  will  repeat  the  story  of 
womanhood  in  America,  and  by  their  redeemed  personal- 
ities and  the  spiritual  transfiguration  of  their  very  bodies 
become  the  greatest  argument  that  Christianity  has  yet  put 
forth.  The  transfigured  life  of  women  under  the  power 
of  the  gospel  and  the  spirit  of  Christ  has  proved  and  will 
prove  the  incontrovertible,  irresistible  apologetic  for  Chris- 
tianity. Men  have  tinder  this  power  illustrated  the  virtues 
of  Christianity,  but  women  adorn  the  moral  virtues  with 
the  Christian  graces,  and  those  who  see  the  transfiguration, 
know  that  something  more  than  self-will  or  self-respect  or 
self-interest  has  operated  to  account  for  it.  In  the  days 
when  Christianity  was  first  penetrating  the  surrounding 
heathen  darkness,  an  old  heathen  philosopher  said,  looking 
upon  the  Christian  women,  "What  women  you  Christians 
have !"  No  man  can  look  upon  transformed  and  transfigured 
Christian  womanhood  and  not  wonder  at  the  marvels  of  the 
grace  of  God. 

II 

The  Part  of  Christian  Women  at  Home  in  This  World 
Program 

The  Foreign  Mission  Board  of  the  Southern  Baptist  Con- 
vention has  undertaken  as  a  part  of  its  task  to  reach  and 
uplift  millions  of  unfortunate  women — women  who  possess 
the  potentialities  of  womanhood  and  who  are  as  capable  as 
women  in  America  of  adorning  the  doctrines  of  God.  The 
millions  in  China  who  hobble  on  deformed  feet  and  broken 
bones  about  their  daily  task,  the  millions  of  girl  widows 
in  India,  and  the  millions  of  burden-bearers  in  Africa,  call 
to  us  in  the  very  pathos  of  their  suffering  for  a  gospel  of 
woman's  liberation  and  glorification.  Millions  in  Europe 
who  have  been  the  severest  sufiferers  from  the  War,  and 
who,  bereft  of  son  and  husband,  and  left  as  the  only  pro- 
viders for  those  who  were  too  young  to  be  drafted,  hold  out 
bony  hands  and  look  with  hungry  eyes  to  us  while  their 


BAPTIST  WOMEN  8i 

little  children  famish  for  milk  and  cry  for  bread.  Other 
millions  in  Mohammedan  lands  denied  satisfaction  for  their 
natural  religious  cravings  and  allowed  only  the  crumbs  of 
even  a  false  religious  faith,  make  their  silent  appeal  to  the 
compassions  of  womanhood  in  America.  Millions  in  South 
America  and  other  Catholic  lands  are  the  victims  of  super- 
stition and  the  guile  of  priests  who  have  no  fineness  of  soul 
to  appreciate  a  woman's  nature.  These  present  need  and 
opportunity  w^hich  should  at  once  break  the  Qiristian 
woman's  heart  and  enlist  her  practical  cooperation  in  mis- 
sionary service  for  womanhood. 
What  can  the  American  Christian  woman  do  ? 

1.  Well,  she  can  for  one  thing  face  the  facts  as  they  are. 
I  admonish  American  women  that  they  do  not  blink  the 
facts,  either  as  these  facts  represent  the  conditions  of  wom- 
anhood on  the  field,  or  conditions  and  duty  at  home.  For 
instance,  face  this  fact :  You  have  comforts,  know  joys,  and 
claim  privileges  to  which  your  sisters  are  strangers.  In 
every  land  where  the  Foreign  Mission  Board  is  preaching 
the  gospel  women  are  strangers  to  comforts  which  you 
enjoy  daily.  In  their  neglect  and  under  cruel  discrimina- 
tion, they  go  about  their  menial  tasks  with  aching  hearts 
and  with  unsatisfied  aspirations  to  which  long  misfortune 
cannot  quite  reconcile  them.  Face  then  the  fact  of  your 
superior  circumstance  and  the  duty  to  the  unfortunate  which 
your  comforts  and  privileges  impose. 

2.  Another  fact  is :  The  world  cannot  be  safe  and  wom- 
anhood safeguarded  anywhere  if  womanhood  is  neglected 
anywhere.  More  than  this,  America  cannot  remain  Chris- 
tian if  the  rest  of  the  world  is  left  either  pagan  or  papal. 
And  more  still,  America  will  become  heathen  if  heathen 
womanhood  is  neglected  in  the  lands  where  the  majority  of 
women  live.  The  women  of  America  must  share  their 
privileges  or  lose  them.  The  infection  of  unregenerated, 
degraded,  and  stunted  womanhood  of  the  great  Continents 
of  Asia  and  Europe  will  certainly  reach  America  if  the 
Christianity  of  America  does  not  reach  the  women  of  these 
Continents.     Indeed,  an  infection  and  contamination  has 


82  MISSIONARY  MESSAGES 

already  begun  here.  A  day  at  Ellis  Island  with  the  deposit 
there  of  European  women  and  children  with  the  marks  of 
physical,  mental,  and  moral  neglect  upon  them,  would  startle 
some  of  our  refined  and  cautious  ladies,  as  would  a  case 
of  bubonic  plague  discovered  in  their  back  alley.  The  great 
World  War  has  broken  down  many  seawalls,  and  the  tides 
will  henceforth  roll  in  upon  us  from  every  land.  There  is 
no  quarantining  America  against  the  moral  ideals  and  re- 
ligious ideas  of  other  nations.  Our  safety  must  be  found 
in  the  Christianization  of  America  and  in  such  Christiani- 
zation  as  shall  enlist  American  Christianity  in  the  religious 
sanitation  of  the  world.  Another  hundred  years*  neglect  of 
the  womanhood  of  heathen  and  papal  lands  will  threaten 
the  liberties  and  welfare  of  women  in  all  lands. 

3.  American  women  must  qualify  for  this  world  service. 
They  must  resist  pagan  ideals  which  infest  their  own  land, 
and  some  customs  which  outheathen  heathenism.  Lax  mar- 
riages, marriage  laws,  cheap  divorces,  and  those  things  which 
produce  them,  the  cheap  showhouse,  and  everything  else 
which  schools  the  young  in  vice  and  breaks  down  moral  dis- 
crimination, lowers  moral  standards,  and  thus  imperils  soci- 
ety, must  be  dealt  with  effectually.  And,  with  all  the  boast- 
ing of  men,  nobody  can  deal  with  these  as  eff"ectually  as  can 
women.  There  was  never  a  greater  challenge  to  Christian 
womanhood  than  that  which  is  presented  to  educated  Chris- 
tian women  in  America  to-day.  The  educated  and  profes- 
sedly Christian  women  of  America  can,  if  they  will,  domi- 
nate the  social  life  of  this  land,  including  social  pleasures, 
public  entertainments,  feminine  dress,  and  the  rest.  Have 
our  women  brains  enough,  force  of  character  and  courage 
enough,  to  put  on  a  social  program  which  is  consistent  with 
high  moral  principles  and  with  Christian  profession?  Can 
they  make  social  demands  and  create  a  social  atmosphere 
in  which  cheap  and  initial  immoralities  shall  wither  like 
tender  grass  before  frost  or  fire?  They  can  do  it  if  they 
will,  and  nobody  else  can  do  it.  Women  must  do  this  in 
self-protection  at  home,  and  to  qualify  for  service  on  behalf 
of  their  sisters  abroad. 


BAPTIST  WOMEN  83 

4.  Another  thing:  Women  at  home  can  while  saving 
themselves  and  saving  their  daughters  and  their  sons,  reach 
out  hands  to  their  sisters  in  other  lands  and  inspire  a  min- 
istry to  womanhood  in  all  in  our  churches.  The  women 
of  the  dark  lands  await  woman's  ministry.  They  know 
that  women  can  understand  them  better  than  men  who  are 
made  of  coarser  fiber,  and  to  whom  God  did  not  give  the 
keener  sensibilities  which  attune  women  to  great  and  re- 
sponsive service.  My  sisters,  continents  of  sorrowing,  suf- 
fering, dwarfed,  and  maimed  womanhood  are  waiting  for 
your  Christian  ministries,  your  love,  your  sympathy,  and  to 
welcome  your  best  ideals.  Responding  to  such  a  call,  you 
can  strengthen  the  missionary  purpose  in  your  church,  and 
the  missionary  desire  and  ability  of  your  husbands,  your 
fathers,  your  sons.  Says  Mrs.  Helen  B.  Montgomery, 
"The  men  are  for  the  most  part  the  earners;  we  are  the 
spenders  of  Baptist  incomes.  We  can  double  or  we  can 
halve  the  contributions  which  Baptist  laymen  will  make." 
What  a  responsibility !  Remember  that  your  extravagances, 
your  unnecessary  expenditures  to  gratify  your  vanity,  are 
costing  your  sisters  who  sit  under  the  doom  of  heathenism 
the  very  bread  of  life  and  those  necessities  of  a  woman's 
heart,  love  and  tender  care.  It  is  yours  not  only  to  fix 
standards  for  your  giving,  but  standards  for  your  spending 
which  will  leave  the  men  something  to  give,  and  who  will 
be  glad  to  give  it  under  the  inspiration  of  your  example  and 
the  spell  of  your  solicitude  for  your  unfortunate  sisters. 


Ill 

A   Word  of  Cheer  Concerning  the  Women  Who  Are  in 
This  Program 

1.  I  cannot  close  without  brief  words  of  cheer  and 
appreciation.  The  women  at  home  are,  in  great  numbers, 
increasing  in  beautiful  devotion  and  in  cooperation  with 
us  in  the  prosecution  of  our  larger  program.  Women  are 
praying.    They  are  giving.    They  are  volunteering.    Thou- 


84  MISSIONARY  MESSAGES 

sands  of  them  keep  the  morning  watch  and  give  systematic- 
ally of  their  savings,  while  unprecedented  numbers  of  fresh 
college  girls  are  offering  their  lives  to  be  witnesses  for 
Christ  to  the  womanhood  of  other  lands.  Our  volunteer 
list  probably  shows  two  girls  and  women  for  each  young 
man  who  volunteers  for  missionary  service.  This  is  a 
tribute  to  the  influence  of  mothers,  female  teachers,  W.  M.  U. 
Mission  Study  Courses,  and  is  an  answer  to  prayers  which 
go  up  daily  to  Him  whose  chief  concern  for  things  mundane 
is  that  the  ripened  fields  shall  be  gathered  before  there  is 
greater  loss  of  the  precious  grain.  Our  women  are  coming 
into  the  missionary  world  program,  and  there  is  nothing 
which  gives  greater  promise  for  the  future  than  this  fact. 

2.  Daylight  is  breaking  on  the  mission  fields.  We  are 
beginning  to  get  some  of  the  first  fruits  from  our  mission 
schools  for  girls.  The  great  majority  of  these  girls  find 
Christ  before  they  have  finished  school.  The  holy  experi- 
ence sufifuses  their  faces  with  a  new  winsomeness.  They 
come  forth  to  advertise  the  gospel  of  Christ  by  that  light 
which  shines  through  their  personalities,  and  which  was 
never  before  seen  by  heathen  eyes  on  land  or  sea.  We  are 
turning  out  teachers  and  workers  and  sisters  and  wives  and 
mothers  whose  influence,  like  the  fragrant  flowers  of  the 
garden  in  springtime,  is  being  wafted  into  the  surrounding 
society.  Our  schools  are  growing  in  efficiency  and  gaining 
in  patronage.  A  few  of  them  are  drawing  girls  from  influ- 
ential families  which  both  help  in  the  support  of  the  schools 
and  strengthen  their  influence.  Schools  like  the  Eliza  Yates 
Girls'  School  in  Shanghai,  Pooi  to  in  Canton,  the  girls' 
school  in  Sao  Paulo,  and  the  new  woman's  department  of 
the  College  at  Rio  de  Janeiro,  are  commanding  attention 
and  winning  patronage  because  of  their  products  in  culture 
and  character.  The  Eliza  Yates  School  has  out  of  tuition 
fees  saved  $10,000  with  which  to  erect  a  new  and  greatly 
needed  building  for  the  accommodation  of  its  growing  pat- 
ronage. Our  women  are  being  organized  on  the  fields  for 
eflfective  Christian  work,  and  through  the  schools,  churches, 
and  these  women's  organizations,  leaders  are  being  trained. 


BAPTIST  WOMEN  85 

The  influence  and  power  of  Christianity  are  cumulative. 
It  was  my  pleasure  to  have  some  advisory  part  in  effecting 
a  W.  M.  U.  organization  in  Japan  and  China  in  1919.  The 
ideals  of  the  W.  M.  U.  have  crossed  the  Pacific,  and  women 
have  begun  to  repeat  in  the  churches  of  the  Far  East  that 
which  they  have  wrought  in  the  churches  at  home.  Con- 
tinue, my  sisters,  your  mission  study  work,  keep  up  your 
training  in  missionary  giving,  draw  others  into  your  prayer 
circles,  and  your  eyes  shall  shortly  see  the  glory  of  the 
King  breaking  through  the  clouds  of  heathenism  and  shining 
in  the  faces  of  redeemed  womanhood  in  all  lands.  Baptist 
women  have  an  important  place  in  the  Baptist  World  Pro- 
gram. 


/ 
/ 

/ 


CHAPTER  VI 

A  DECISIVE  HOUR  IN  BAPTIST   FOREIGN    MISSIONS 

FOREIGN  Missions  holds  a  unique  and  commanding 
place  in  American  and  Baptist  history,  as  indeed  it 
does  in  the  history  of  Christianity.  Foreign  Missions  has 
been  an  organizing  principle  in  the  denomination :  has  called 
Baptists  together  in  cooperative  endeavor,  been  the  inspira- 
tion of  education,  spirituality,  Christian  heroism,  the  spirit 
of  sacrifice  and  devotion  to  Christ  in  gifts  of  money  and 
of  self.  It  has  broadened  the  lives  of  individuals,  expanded 
the  denomination  and  enriched  the  churches  with  the  pres- 
ence of  Christ,  in  a  manner  for  which  they  had  no  promise 
of  being  enriched  had  they  not  made  the  attempt  to  "go 
into  all  the  world."  By  the  prayer-life  which  the  great 
undertaking  has  provoked  among  the  women  and  others  in 
the  churches,  the  passion  which  the  great  theme  has  kindled 
in  the  pulpit,  the  liberality  which  it  has  inspired  in  the  pew, 
it  has  vitalized  formal  piety  and  made  heroes  of  young  men 
and  maidens  who  would  have  been  devotees  of  fashion,  the 
debauchees  of  pleasure,  and  the  problem  of  pastors  and 
deacons.  The  going  out  of  young  people  from  our  churches, 
and  the  reports  from  the  foreign  fields  of  their  trials  and 
triumphs,  have  raised  ideals,  fostered  intelligence,  and  stimu- 
lated purpose  and  activity  in  the  members  at  home  to  which 
they  would  have  been  strangers  had  the  influences  of  this 
work  been  wanting. 

We  are  a  great  denomination  largely  because  of  our  rela- 
tion to  and  the  benefits  derived  from  this  great  enterprise. 
Consequently  the  history  of  the  denomination  shows  the 
mark  of  this  work.  The  most  inspirational  characters,  the 
epochal  events  and  luminous  incidents  in  that  history  are 
related  intimately  to  this  Christ-ordained  enterprise.  How 
poor  and  how  dull  would  be  the  history  of  Baptists  without 
the  thrilling  and  fascinating  story  of   Foreign   Missions! 

66 


A  DECISIVE  HOUR  87 

The  pulpit  itself  would  be  impoverished  without  the  illustra- 
tive ni;aterial  of  Carey,  his  shoe  bench  and  scholarship;  of 
Judson,  his  baptism,  the  lives  of  his  wives,  his  prisons  and 
his  death;  of  Yates,  his  deeds  and  dying  words;  of  Clough's 
long  life,  many  converts  and  great  baptizing;  and  the  word 
and  works  of  a  hundred  others  who  in  the  interest  of  this 
enterprise  went  forth  weeping,  bearing  precious  seeds. 

What  would  American  Baptists  be  as  a  denomination 
to-day  if  they  had  not  entered  into  the  duties  and  oppor- 
tunities of  Foreign  Missions  and  shared  the  benefits  of  this 
enterprise  ?    Let  some  one  try  to  answer  that  question. 

It  is  one  of  the  seeming  fatalities  that  a  work  so  glorious, 
a  work  which  seeks  in  unselfishness  to  crown  the  Saviour 
King  of  kings,  and  which  crowns  the  denomination  in  turn, 
should,  above  all  else  the  denomination  has  attempted,  have 
encountered  through  the  years  the  opposition,  the  misrep- 
resentation and  criticism  which  have  characterized  the  be- 
havior of  some  toward  this  work.  In  the  face  of  such, 
the  friends  and  promoters  of  Foreign  Missions  have  often 
had  need  to  recall  and  cultivate  the  spirit  of  the  Master 
when  He  said,  "They  know  not  what  they  do." 

But  God*s  blessing  abides  upon  this  work.  Upon  every 
step  we  take  on  our  way  "into  all  the  world"  his  pleasure 
and  blessing  are  manifest.  His  promise  is  fulfilled.  He  is 
with  us. 

The  Foreign  Mission  work  of  Southern  Baptists  has 
reached  a  definite  stage.  We  are  precisely  at  the  point 
where  periods  meet.  Decisive  are  our  acts  right  now.  Con- 
ditions obtain  and  issues  confront  us  which  give  significance 
and  character  to  what  we  do  at  this  stage  of  our  progress 
in  Foreign  Mission  work,  and  make  this  the  most  momentous 
hour  for  Foreign  Missions  in  fifty  years,  probably  since 
the  beginning  of  the  modern  era.  Here  are  some  elements 
in  the  present  situation. 

1.  We  are  confronted  by  a  new  order  of  missionary 
operation.  Leaders  of  the  Union  and  Federation  Movement 
in  Foreign  Missions  have  projected  and  well-nigh  perfected 
a  world-wide  organization  which  is  directed  by  some  of  the 


88  MISSIONARY  MESSAGES 

most  astute  minds  to  be  found  among  the  Christian  forces. 
This  movement  is  backed  by  the  great  missionar>^  periodicals 
and  a  growing  library  of  books.  It  is  supported  by  munifi- 
cent gifts  and  bequests,  and  takes  advantage  of  the  Chris- 
tian sentiment  v^hich  gathers  about  the  Foreign  Mission 
enterprise  in  particular.  The  leaders  of  this  Movement, 
backed  by  such  mighty  forces  and  mighty  influences,  boldly 
and  frankly  avow  policies  which  will,  if  made  effective, 
put  an  end  to  the  peculiar  denominationalisms  and  effect 
radical  changes  in  outstanding  aspects  of  historical  and 
present  Christianity.  No  denomination  will  be  allowed  to 
preserve  its  identity  and  distinctiveness  on  foreign  fields  if 
this  Movement  is  allowed  to  succeed.  Baptists  are  called 
upon  to  subscribe  to  a  platform  which  is  explicitly  sub- 
versive of  their  traditional  beliefs  and  policies,  as  is  shown 
by  the  following,  adopted  by  a  conference  which  the  Move- 
ment conducted  in  Chile,  and  which  is  similar  to  the  "find- 
ings" of  such  conferences  held  in  other  parts  of  South 
America,  China,  India  and  elsewhere: 


"With  the  passing  of  the  years  and  the  consequent  growth 
of  the  churches  of  Chile,  the  conviction  grows  deeper  and 
clearer  to  the  workers  present  in  this  conference,  that  the 
aims  of  our  Christian  work  in  this  country  should  be  the 
creation  of  a  united  Chilean  Evangelical  Church  undivided 
by  the  denominational  distinctions  which  obtain  in  other 
parts  of  Christendom.  As  intermediate  steps  in  achieving 
this  end  we  approve  all  practicable  measures  of  coopera- 
tion among  the  recognized  Evangelical  bodies.  The  follow- 
ing plan  for  cooperation  is  recommended : 

"1.  Division  or  delimitation  of  territory  to  be  readjusted 
from  time  to  time. 

*'2.  The  use  of  the  common  name  for  evangelical 
churches,  for  example,  The  Evangelical  Church  in  Chile.' 


A  DECISIVE  HOUR  89 

"3.  The  use  of  a  common  hymn  book  and,  as  soon  as 
possible,  the  use  of  a  common  version  of  the  Bible. 

"4.  The  organization  of  a  committee  on  cooperation 
and  comity  into  which  all  recognized  evangelical  bodies  at 
present  at  work  in  Chile  shall  be  invited  to  have  representa- 
tion. 

"5.  An  agreement  for  the  transfer  of  members  between 
all  recognized  bodies. 

"6.  An  understanding  concerning  the  transfer  of  work- 
ers and  the  treatment  of  dismissed  agents. 

"7.  A  general  agreement  for  all  to  respect  the  discipline 
imposed  by  other  evangelical  churches. 

**8.     A  great  nation-wide  effort  in  evangelization. 

"9.  That  the  present  Bible  seminary  be  enlarged  so  as 
to  admit  students  from  all  recognized  evangelical  bodies. 

"10.  To  extend  the  scope  of  the  present  cooperative 
plan  in  the  production  of  literature  so  as  to  admit  all  reg- 
ular bodies  that  may  desire  to  participate  in  such  work. 

"11.  The  founding  of  a  union  Christian  hospital,  or- 
phanage, and  an  institutional  church  as  soon  as  it  is  pos- 
sible to  do  so. 

"12.  An  interdenominational  Christian  university  for 
this  part  of  Latin  America  to  be  located  in  Santiago." 

Baptists  as  well  as  others  have  been  brought  face  to  face 
with  the  issue  of  denominational  extinction  by  this  Move- 
ment. We  have  been  invited  to  join  the  Movement  in  "the 
creation  of  a  united  Chilean  Evangelical  Church  undivided 
by  denominational  distinctions  which  obtain  in  other  parts 
of  Christendom,"  and  the  above  planks  in  the  platform  are 
the  "intermediate  steps  in  achieving  this  end."  Such  is  the 
program  of  the  Movement  announced  for  the  Continuation 
Committees  backed  by  the  Foreign  Missions  Conference  of 
North  America  in  every  land.  We  have  not  seen  a  graver 
hour  for  denominational  principles  and  evangelical  Chris- 
tianity itself  than  that  which  has  thus  been  announced. 

But  Southern  Baptists  have  met  the  issue  frankly  and 


90  MISSIONARY  MESSAGES 

the  Foreign  Mission  Board  and  the  Southern  Baptist  Con- 
vention have  issued  an  uhimatum  and  the  missionaries  are 
cooperating  heartily.  There  is  no  need,  therefore,  for  any 
one  to  get  nervous  for  the  poHcies  of  Southern  Baptist 
Foreign  Mission  work.  These  have  been  decided.  We  have 
chosen  our  course,  but  whether  we  run  well  or  not  is  for 
Southern  Baptists  to  decide  by  the  manner  in  which  they 
back  their  own  program.  The  denominational  program  is 
inevitably  doomed  in  the  face  of  the  forces  which  are 
operating  the  Union  program  unless  Southern  Baptists  now 
concentrate  their  resources  upon  the  support  of  their  own 
Foreign  Mission  work.  Personally,  I  am  not  afraid  of  the 
contest,  if  Southern  Baptists  will  back  the  program  which 
they  have  made.  But  let  no  one  be  deceived.  The  battle  is 
not  won.  The  contest  will  last  many  years  on  the  foreign 
fields.  It  is  there  that  effort  hostile  to  the  denominational 
program  is  being  centered. 

2.  The  present  world  conditions  make  this  a  critical  hour 
and  a  transitional  period  in  Baptist  missionary  history.  If 
Southern  Baptists  can  rise  to  the  exigencies  of  the  hour 
and  take  advantage  of  the  course  of  Providence  at  this  time, 
they  will  glide  swiftly  into  a  new  era  which  will  in  the  future 
of  Baptist  history  be  as  distinctly  recognized  as  that  which 
in  English  Baptist  history  is  waymarked  by  the  year  1792, 
in  American  Baptist  history  by  the  year  1814,  and  in  South- 
em  Baptist  history,  1845.  No  people  can  live  up  to  and 
into  a  universal  situation  such  as  now  exists,  and  ever 
after  be  the  same.  Baptists  will  start  a  new  and  glorious 
chapter  of  their  resplendent  Foreign  Mission  history  now, 
or  future  historians  will  tell  of  their  faithlessness  and  recre- 
ance, and  the  denomination  will  suffer  the  lack  of  that 
inspiration  which  is  furnished  when  great  men  meet  great 
hours  of  destiny  in  high  courage,  sublime  faith  and  heroic 
deeds.  If  they  are  recreant  at  such  an  hour,  they  will 
consign  their  principles  to  defeat,  and  consent  that  others 
shall  have-  the  advantage  of  an  hour  which  is  peculiarly 
their  own.  We  cannot  stand  still  now  and  see  the  glory 
of  the  Lord.     This  is  a  time  when  all  the  circumstances 


A  DECISIVE  HOUR  91 

conspire  to  make  steadfastness  in  the  faith  and  abounding 
in  the  work  essential  and  signal  virtues  of  our  people. 

Shall  Baptists  prove  mediocre  in  Christian  courage  and 
Kingdom  statesmanship,  when  the  spirit  of  democracy  is 
nurturing  into  life  a  republic  in  China,  the  biggest  nation 
on  earth;  when  our  brothers  in  Russia  and  Roumania  are 
claiming  their  birthright  at  the  hazard  of  life  itself;  when 
the  crucial  battle  between  the  Crescent  and  the  Cross  in 
Africa  draws  to  its  issue;  when  the  day  of  the  spiritual 
renaissance  of  our  neighbor  republics  in  South  America  is 
at  hand,  and  when  now  society  and  Christianity  must  be  re- 
established in  Europe?  If  Baptists  are  not  great  in  faith 
and  deed,  in  dauntless  courage  and  personal  sacrifice  now, 
they  may  as  well  get  ready  to  accept  inevitable  obscurity 
for  themselves  and  their  principles,  and  to  forfeit  their 
claim  to  the  rewards  of  faithfulness  and  good  stewardship. 
This  is  a  supreme  moment  in  Baptist  history,  and  only 
supreme  effort  will  meet  it  worthily.  Foreign  Missions  is 
the  decisive  Christian  enterprise  in  the  present  world  situa- 
tion. We  have  our  opportunity  and  we  have  waiting  lists 
of  volunteers  ready  to  man  the  outposts  and  lead  the  advance. 
Our  God  is  by  innumerable  tokens  signaling  us  to  go  for- 
ward. 

3.  Another  element  in  our  problem,  which  makes  the 
hour  a  critical  one,  is  the  accumulated  obligations  of  our 
work.  By  obligations  I  do  not  refer  simply  to  the  amount 
which  has  been  fixed  as  a  budget  for  the  year,  although 
this  budget  already  in  operation  calls  for  more  than  South- 
ern Baptists  gave  last  year  for  current  support.  We  have 
not  made  the  budget  as  large  as  the  needs  of  the  old  fields, 
to  say  nothing  of  great  and  swift  opportunities  in  new  fields, 
simply  because  there  has  not  been  the  response  to  the 
situation  by  the  churches  and  the  brotherhood  at  large  to 
justify  it.  But  this  budget  does  not  represent  our  obligations. 
We  have  from  year  to  year  deferred  obligations  incident 
to  a  growing  work  until  necessity  has  become  acute.  Many 
of  the  necessities  for  which  no  appropriations  have  been 
made  are  no  less  binding  upon  Baptists  than  those  for  which 


92  MISSIONARY  MESSAGES 

the  Board  has  actually  made  provision  in  the  annual  budgets. 
We  need  the  four  million  dollars  which  has  been  named 
with  which  to  meet  these  obligations  for  the  present  year, 
and  in  order  that  we  may  seriously  consider  advance  and 
expansion.    Perhaps  the  largest  missionary  opportunity  ever 
offered  to  Baptists  by  a  superintending  Providence  is  that 
which  is  offered  them  to-day.    It  is  altogether  probable 
that  in  the  new  nation  of  Russia,  where  the  Baptist  form 
of  the  initial  Qiristian  ordinance,  baptism,  has  through  all 
the  centuries  been  safeguarded,  we  can,  by  taking  this  New 
Testament  form  and  filling  it  with  New  Testament  signifi- 
cance, so  commend  our  principles  and  faith  to  the  men  and 
women  of  this  great  nation  as  to  gain  offensive  positions 
which  will  in  turn  give  us  new  advantage  in  the  conquest 
of  all  nations  for  Christ  and  New  Testament  Christianity. 
And  yet  the  stern  fact  stares  us  in  the  face  and  will  not 
down,  that  Southern  Baptists  must  meet  obligations  which 
they  have  already  incurred  on  fields  already  occupied  before 
they  can  take  full  advantage  of  opportunities  which  Provi- 
dence is  offering  them  on  other  fields.     The  task  is  not 
an  impossible  one,  but  it  is  a  duty  which  cannot  be  evaded. 
All  who  would  see  Southern  Baptists  enter  the  promising 
and  providential  fields,  should  keep  in  mind  the  fact  that 
we  cannot  in  good  moral  behavior  ignore  obligations  which 
we  have  already  assumed,  and  that  it  does  not  promise  well 
for  new  advances  that  we  allow  ourselyes  to  suffer  defeat 
in  positions  already  taken. 

But  for  men  who  are  willing  to  match  their  duty  and 
ambition  with  courage,  deed  and  sacrifice,  which  always  go 
with  great  achievement,  there  is  ground  for  hope  and  opti- 
mism. Southern  Baptists  can  if  they  will.  No  denomina- 
tion on  earth  is  in  so  good  a  position  as  Southern  Baptists 
are  to  undertake  at  this  hour  a  great  denominational  Foreign 
Mission  program.  There  is  greater  unity  and  coherence  of 
faith  among  us  than  among  any  other  people.  In  numbers 
we  more  completely  dominate  the  home  territory  which  we 
occupy  than  any  denomination  in  America  dominates  the 
territory  in  which  it  exists.    We  are,  too,  growing  rich  while 


A  DECISIVE  HOUR  93 

we  grow  in  numbers.  And  our  schools  have  placed  at  our 
disposal  the  men  and  the  women  who  are  ready  and  capable 
to  lead.  What  more  is  needed  ?  Only  these  things :  First, 
that  we  shall  by  prayer,  consecration  and  dedication  avail 
ourselves  of  spiritual  fitness  and  force  for  the  sacred  task. 
Second,  that  those  who  are  ambitious  that  Southern  Bap- 
tists shall  carry  themselves  with  credit  and  register  achieve- 
ment in  the  present  situation,  shall  help  them  do  it  not  by 
criticism,  nor  agitation  of  policies,  nor  advancement  of  the- 
ories, but  leaving  these  matters  to  the  great  body  of  repre- 
sentative men  who  have  been  selected  by  the  Convention  to 
handle  them,  use  their  leadership  and  their  influence  in  the 
effort  to  assemble  the  resources  on  which  advance  is 
dependent. 

The  great  need  of  the  hour  in  the  South  to-day  is  friends 
for  this  cause  who  will  help  us  get  the  money.  The 
Foreign  Mission  Board  is  aware  of  conditions  on  the  For- 
eign Mission  field ;  is  ready  on  short  notice  to  order  great 
advance.  It  is  only  waiting  for  supplies.  Those  who  really 
love  Foreign  Missions  and  covet  for  Southern  Baptists  a 
great  future,  have  their  opportunity  for  service  in  coopera- 
tive effort  for  increased  contributions.  Third,  let  the  men 
and  women,  into  whose  laps  by  providential  good  fortune, 
increased  wealth  has  been  poured,  say  to  the  Board,  *'We 
will  supply  the  needs  if  you  order  the  advance."  Can  there 
not  be  found  among  the  noble  men  of  our  churches  who  by 
frugality,  perseverance  and  integrity,  have  registered  suc- 
cess in  the  face  of  difficulties,  and  who,  with  increasing 
wealth  have  retained  their  love  for  the  Saviour  and  their 
passion  of  the  Cross,  many  who  will,  at  such  an  hour  give 
generously,  give  as  they  never  gave  before,  give  as  the  cir- 
cumstances suggest  and  justify?  It  is  the  time  of  all  times 
when  men  can  with  money  make  way  for  Christian  triumph, 
hold  this  great  enterprise  steady  to  its  task,  and  establish 
Christianity  in  the  world.  Shall  not  we,  one  and  all,  pray 
for  vision  and  for  the  willing  heart? 


CHAPTER  VII 

THE  NEW  WORLD  CONDITIONS  AND  THEIR  SIGNIFICANCE 

THE  Foreign  Mission  Board  of  the  Southern  Baptis't 
Convention  is  now  at  work  in  eighteen  nations  of  the 
earth.  These  nations  present  a  great  variety  of  type.  Each 
nation  has,  so  to  speak,  its  own  personality.  Of  course, 
there  are  things  common  to  all  men  whatever  their  color, 
nationality,  residence  or  religion.  They  eat,  drink,  suffer, 
love,  hate,  hope  and  despair.  But  China  differs  from  Japan, 
Japan  from  Siberia,  the  Far  East  from  the  Near  East,  Pales- 
tine from  Egypt.  There  is  a  difference  between  the  Euro- 
pean states  and  contrasts  between  the  South  American 
republics.  There  is,  too,  a  difference  between  pagan  and 
papal  lands,  evangelical  and  Roman  Catholic  countries,  as 
Macaulay  recognized  when  he  wrote  his  history. 

But  the  War  has  served  as  a  sort  of  common  denominator 
for  all  the  variety  of  nations  and  conditions  and  has  yielded 
for  our  profitable  study  certain  common  moral  aspects  of  all 
nations,  which  must  be  taken  account  of  and  dealt  with 
promptly  and  with  decision  by  those  who  would  reconstruct 
and  evangelize  the  world.  I  want  us  to  search  for  some  of 
these  common  aspects  of  the  world  which  the  War  has 
produced  and  left  on  our  hands  which  together  constitute 
what  is  properly  and  significantly  called  "s.  new  world  situa- 
tion.'' 

The  particular  elements  which  make  up  the  universal  con- 
ditions at  this  hour  lay  claims  and  responsibilities  upon  us 
and  strongly  commend  the  general  missionary  appeal  to  the 
Christian  conscience.  It  is  something  new  and  tremendously 
impressive  that  these  conditions  prevail  quite  universally. 
They  bear  directly  upon  the  missionary  duty  of  the  churches 
and  compose  an  immediate  missionary  urgency. 

94 


NEW  CONDITIONS  95 


New  Universal  Aspects 

1.  There  is  throughout  the  world  a  new  race  conscious- 
ness. The  race  instinct  has  been  accentuated  and  the  race 
personaHty  made  more  obvious  and  obtrusive.  Japan  is 
more  Japanese,  China  is  more  Chinese,  Italy  is  more  Italian. 
In  every  nation  men  have  become  aware  of  themselves. 
There  has  been  awakened  a  new  impulse  to  self-realization. 
You  will  find  this  whether  you  go  East  or  West.  Travelers, 
missionaries  and  diplomats  are  encountering  it  and  finding 
that  they  must  reckon  with  it.  The  native  citizen  or  indi- 
vidual cannot  longer  be  patronized  as  formerly.  There  is 
not  a  tribe  in  Dark  Africa  which  has  not  heard  the  echo 
of  Woodrow  Wilson's  voice  and  assumed  a  new  self-respect 
and  betrayed  a  new  dignity,  and  which  does  not  demand 
a  new  opportunity  for  freedom  and  self-direction.  It  will 
become  more  and  more  difficult  to  keep  even  the  most 
backward  peoples  in  the  status  of  subject  races. 

2.  There  is  a  world  consciotisness.  The  self-center  of 
nationalism  is  balanced  by  a  new  sense  of  internationalism. 
Men  and  nations  everywhere  have  been  quickened  to  a  new 
intelligence  and  interest  in  the  rest  of  the  world.  We  have 
suddenly  produced  a  younger  generation  of  world-citizens. 
There  has  been  begotten,  too,  a  deep  conviction  that  no 
nation  can  live  to  itself.  The  War  has,  so  to  speak,  social- 
ized the  race.  All  men  have  learned  out  of  the  experiences 
of  the  past  half  dozen  years  that  there  is  no  "Sunrise  King- 
dom;" that  a  Hermit  kingdom  cannot  be  maintained.  We 
must  interest  ourselves  in  the  welfare  of  other  nations,  or 
be  involved  in  their  sins  or  misfortunes.  The  Cninese 
coolies  from  Shantung  Province  returned  from  France  in 
1918  and  1919  to  tell  their  neighbors  that  China  was  not 
the  "Central  Kingdom."  They  had  gone  West  ten  thousand 
miles ! 

3.  There  is  a  new  race  jealousy,  suspicion,  hate.  The 
War  stirred  up  mistrust  and  turned  loose  the  vials  of  bit- 
terness.    No  sooner  had  the  guns  of  war  ceased  to  muffle 


96  MISSIONARY  MESSAGES 

our  ears  than  we  found  that  not  only  Germany  and  Austria 
hated  England  and  France  and  Italy,  but  that  these  allies 
held  scores  against  each  other,  and  all  were  jealous,  suspi- 
cious of  and  critical  of  America  as  well  as  of  each  other. 
Ally  hates  ally!  The  nations  of  Europe  hailed  President 
Wilson  and  gave  him  triumphal  entry  to  their  cities  and 
named  fashionable  avenues  for  him,  but  he  had  scarcely 
reached  Washington  before  they  were  casting  mud  on  his 
gilded  name  at  street  corners. 

But  suspicion,  mistrust  and  hate  exist  not  only  between 
nation  and  nation  but  between  class  and  class.  There  never 
was  such  lack  of  cordiality,  friendship,  and  cooperation 
between  employer  and  employee,  seller  and  buyer.  Men  have 
lost  faith  in  each  other  and  do  not  respect  each  other's 
interests. 

4.  Another  universal  condition  is  lawlessness  and  immor- 
ality. Bombs  and  shootings,  hold-ups  and  kidnapings,  di- 
vorce and  illegitimacy  are  out  of  proportion  to  former  times. 
Gangsters  and  yeggmen  have  dimmed  the  glory  of  Jesse 
James.  There  is  more  lawlessness,  ungodliness  and  inhu- 
manity reported  for  one  of  our  American  cities  in  a  year 
than  our  fathers  read  about  in  a  lifetime.  Probably  there 
never  was  such  universal  lack  of  conscience  for  other  men's 
property,  time,  or  life  as  to-day. 

"The  world  is  getting  worse,"  says  some  one.  Yes,  so  it 
is,  and  better  too ;  and  it  will  get  both  better  and  worse  as 
the  end  draws  nigh.  The  devil  grows  more  desperate  as  the 
Lord  is  mlore  victorious.  Many  of  the  worst  things  are  signs 
of  Satan's  desperation.  There  are  more  offensive  eruptions 
of  depravity  in  modern  and  advanced  civilization  than  in 
stark  heathenism.  The  bad  are  getting  worse  and  badness 
looks  worse  in  the  waxing  day  of  the  Son  of  Man.  A 
shaft  of  light  shot  through  the  darkness  makes  the  banks 
of  darkness  on  either  side  seem  to  be  denser,  blacker  and 
more  impenetrable. 

The  great  World  War  has  accustomed  men  to  blood,  and 
human  life  is  not  precious  in  the  eyes  of  many.  But,  thank 
God,  more  souls  are  being  saved,  more  hungry  are  being 


NEW  CONDITIONS  97 

fed,  more  children  are  being  clothed  than  ever  before.  A 
great  contest  is  on  between  the  depravity  of  the  race  and 
the  Christian  spirit  constrained  by  the  Spirit  of  Christ.  The 
light  shineth  in  darkness  and  the  darkness  overcomes  it  not, 

5.  There  is  a  new  intellectual  awakening.  The  human 
mind  was  never  so  alert  as  now.  Knowledge  is  running  to 
and  fro  and  men  are  eager  for  learning.  This  has  its  dan- 
gers and  its  advantages.  This  alert  mind  is  often  skeptical, 
critical,  iconoclastic.  Traditional  faith  and  custom  suffer. 
Much  is  being  destroyed  that  millions  have  held  dear, 
and  all  things  must  pass  the  crucible  of  unsparing  criticism. 
In  the  electrical  excitement  some  small  minds  exhibit  f  reak- 
ishness,  and  intellectual  absurdities  assume  an  intellectual 
appraisement  they  do  not  merit.  Small  men  parading  under 
a  scholarship  which  others  have  achieved,  make  much  of 
*'the  modem  viewpoint,"  and  cultivate  a  shallow  supercilious- 
ness for  much  that  has  its  foundation  in  solid  crypt  of  truth 
and  intellectuality. 

But  serious  men  are  in  quest  of  the  truth  and  there  is  a 
hospitality  for  it.  There  is  a  great  open  market  for  those 
who  have  what  the  world  needs.  If  we  take  advantage  of 
this  attitude  of  mind,  we  can  turn  it  to  account  for  the 
furtherance  of  the  gospel  of  Christ.  Eyes  that  have  been 
closed  and  ears  that  have  been  deaf  are  now  open.  Minds 
which  have  been  locked  in  prejudice  are  to-day  hospitable 
to  the  truth.  The  truth  is  new  in  most  parts  and  new 
things  are  popular  in  this  age. 

6.  There  is  a  new  consciousness  of  God  in  the  world. 
Men  to  whom  God  was  never  before  real  or  necessary  are 
finding  Him  to  be  the  one  great  indispensable  reality.  They 
have  come  to  know  that  there  is  a  Friend  of  right  and 
righteousness,  who  is  stronger  than  armaments,  who  is 
beyond  the  reach  of  artillery,  and  who  gives  invincibleness 
to  a  righteous  cause.  God  so  confounded  the  enemies  of 
right  and  came  so  palpably  near  to  those  who  needed  His 
help  during  the  war, — so  near  to  statesmen  as  well  as  to 
the  wounded  and  dying  who  from  hospital  wards  called 
upon  Him — that  good  men  have  been  reassured  of  Him  and 


98  MISSIONARY  MESSAGES 

bad  men  tremble  at  His  nearness.  Skeptics  have  become 
conscious  that  they  are  in  the  Almighty's  presence.  We 
have  found  that  we  cannot  get  along  without  Him,  and 
when  we  cannot  and  are  ready  to  acknowledge  it,  He  is 
found  to  be  near.  We  have  felt  all  else  which  men  thought 
real  and  reliable  crumble  under  foot.  God  is  real  and  the 
only  unfailing  refuge. 

7.  There  is  a  new  craving  for  the  spiritual.  Materialism 
has  become  a  dry  and  empty  thing  which  cannot  longer 
satisfy  the  hungry  soul.  Men  have  found  that  a  material- 
istic age  or  civilization  grinds  to  powder  the  finer  things 
that  belong  to  the  spirit  '»f  man.  Material  and  mechanical 
views  of  Christianity  are  to-day  as  far  below  par  as  Euro- 
pean exchange.  Ecclesiastical  legerdemain  is  severely  dis- 
counted. Mesmeric  Christianity  is  passing,  and  passing 
first  of  all  on  the  mission  fields.  Men  who  have  hitherto 
tolerated  formalisms  and  ecclesiasticisms,  ritualisms  and 
incantations,  will  not  now  be  satisfied  until  their  spiritual 
natures  are  honored  and  fed.  The  multitudes  are  not  only 
inquiring  for  Christianity  but  for  Christ,  and  will  not  be 
satisfied  until  they  gain  admittance  to  His  immediate  pres- 
ence and  try  Him  for  themselves.  The  soul  of  the  world  is 
restless  and  can  find  rest  in  Him  only.  The  world's  heart 
has  been  broken  and  only  Christ  can  heal  broken  hearts. 
Since  the  War  the  world  has  gone  fashion-mad  and  pleasure- 
mad,  but  already  these  things  stale.  Souls  famish  on  the 
garish  tawdries  of  the  world  and  cry  out  for  spiritual  sus- 
tenance. 

8.  There  is  among  the  nations  a  new  realization  of  need 
of  moral  motive  and  pozver.  In  some  nations  for  a  while 
men  in  high  places  thought  they  saw  in  modern  Western 
civilization  that  which  would  mend  their  outworn  systems. 
They  have  come  to  find  that  modern  civilization  only  adds 
necessity  to  necessity  and  that  somewhere  an  inward  power, 
a  new  moral  energy,  a  sustaining  principle  for  personal  and 
national  character  must  be  found.  The  leaders  of  modern 
progress  and  the  seers  of  all  nations  are  alarmed  at  the 
danger  of  national  collapse  under  the  weight  of  modem 


NEW  CONDITIONS  99 

progress  unless  the  nations  can  be  under-girded  morally. 
Economic  and  political  progress  have  put  a  strain  upon  na- 
tional foundations  which  these  are  not  able  to  bear.  A 
Japanese  editor  who  said  that  **We  have  imported  the  ma- 
chinery of  modern  civilization  but  have  neglected  the  moral 
oil  to  keep  it  running"  spoke  a  parable  which  fits  condi- 
tions in  every  nation  that  is  being  stirred  by  the  new  and 
larger  life  of  the  world.  You  cannot  rear  modern  civiliza- 
tion upon  a  heathen  foundation. 

9.  There  is  a  ziror Id-wide  awakening  of  and  a  new  eval- 
uation of  zvomen  on  every  mission  field.  Evangelization 
has  been  delayed  by  the  ignorance,  the  superstition,  the 
bigotry,  the  fanaticism,  and  inaccessibleness  of  women. 
This  fact  has  militated  greatly  against  the  advance  of  the 
Kingdom  of  God.  Women  on  the  mission  fields  as  every- 
where are  mighty  factors,  but  their  influence  has  been  for 
the  conservation  of  the  old  order.  Men  would  let  heathenism 
rot  but  for  the  women,  and  Roman  Catholicism  could  not 
dominate  a  nation  nor  a  community  in  all  the  world  without 
the  help  which  women  give  it.  Men  would  by  their  indif- 
ference and  mistrust  of  it  let  it  die  of  neglect  if  the  devotion 
of  women  were  interrupted.  There  is  no  more  signifi- 
cant fact  on  the  mission  fields  than  this :  that  women  are 
outgrowing  traditionalism  and  are  becoming  conscious  of 
their  rights,  their  privileges,  their  duties,  their  opportuni- 
ties. 

Here  again  there  is  both  danger  and  advantage,  oppor- 
tunity and  difficulty,  for  Christianity.  Oh,  how  loud  is  the 
call  of  God  for  wise  leadership  among  our  women !  A  great 
danger  on  the  mission  fields  is  that,  disillusioned  and  dis- 
gusted with  ancient  faiths,  they  will  miss  the  gospel  of 
Christ  which  alone  can  crown  womanhood  and  make  wom- 
anhood glorious. 

There  is  a  challenge  and  a  testing  at  home.  Women  in 
America,  where  their  freedom  has  been  won,  will  demon- 
strate whether  they  can  be  trusted  with  their  own  freedom. 
If  they  make  a  mess  of  their  liberties  here,  and  the  new 
woman  fails  to  heighten  respect  for  women,  what  may  we 


loo  MISSIONARY  MESSAGES 

anticipate  for  the  womanhood  of  other  lands  among  whom 
the  constraints  and  restraints  of  the  gospel  have  not  been 
put  in  force? 

10.  There  is  failure  everywhere  of  the  old  forms  of  faith. 
The  mighty  crisis  of  recent  years  has  tried  them  and  they 
have  been  found  wanting.  Shintoism,  Buddhism,  Hinduism, 
Romanism,  and  the  rest  have  failed  to  stand  the  test  and 
have  lost  advantage  in  the  religious  competitorships  of  the 
world.  The  World  War  gave  every  religion  a  supreme 
chance  and  a  testing  challenge. 

I  am  not  unaware  of  the  seeming  "revival"  of  Buddhism 
in  Japan,  of  Mohammedanism  in  Africa,  etc.  This  is  not 
an  expression  of  the  genius  of  these  faiths.  It  is  not  revival 
and  initiation,  but  imitation — and  imitation  is  a  sign  of 
weakness.  Such  imitation  is  always  mechanical  and  lacks 
the  life  and  energy  which  spring  spontaneously  out  of  the 
very  heart  and  nature  of  Christianity. 

So  far  as  heathenism  is  concerned,  it  has  rightly  been 
described  as  "a  chaos  of  religion,  faith,  and  morals."  No- 
body expects  heathenism  pure  and  simple  to  survive  the 
ages.  The  great  religious  systems  and  ecclesiasticisms  are 
not  so  quickly  but  as  certainly  doomed.  The  immobility, 
inadaptability,  irresponsiveness,  indifference,  and  ineffective- 
ness of  the  great  ecclesiastical  systems  in  the  presence  of 
world  needs  and  the  world's  challenge  of  recent  years 
constitute  a  lesson  in  missions  and  a  premise  for  a  mission- 
ary forecast  of  the  future. 

11.  The  religious  question  is  drawing  to  issue.  The 
contending  forces  have  come  to  closer  quarters  than  ever 
and  the  battle  is  at  the  gate.  Men  everywhere  realize  that 
the  issue  is  pending  and  that  decision  cannot  be  postponed 
indefinitely.  The  world  in  its  sorrow  and  extremity  has 
discovered  its  need  of  religion  and  is  sure  to  sit  in  judgment 
on  all  candidates  to  learn  which  can  serve  it  best.  Enlight- 
enment is  penetrating  dark  corners  of  the  world  and  the  rays 
of  knowledge  are  being  turned  upon  the  defects  and  short- 
comings of  religion  as  well  as  other  things.  A  sharpened 
intelligence  is  penetrating  the  depths  of  religious  supersti- 


NEW  CONDITIONS  loi 

tions.  The  public  press  is  not  yet  ready  to  help  turn  on 
the  light,  but  men  are  learning  that  ignorance,  illiteracy, 
poverty,  immorality,  characterize  every  civilization,  every 
one  without  an  exception,  which  is  dominated  by  either 
heathenism  or  Romanism,  and  where  these  have  uninter- 
rupted opportunity  to  make  demonstration,  their  consistent 
and  prolific  fruits  are  ignorance,  hunger,  neglected  child- 
hood and  oppressed  or  abused  womanhood.  This  the  world 
is  learning. 

12.  We  conclude  this  enumeration  of  new  world  condi- 
tions by  repeating  here  what  is  said  in  another  of  these 
"messages,"  namely,  that  there  is  emerging  out  of  universal 
conditions  the  sure  outlines  of  a  universal  religious  faith. 
This  is  a  fact  so  significant  that  no  summary  of  world 
conditions  which  invite  missionary  attention  would  be  com- 
plete without  it.  Impelled  by  the  intellectual,  political, 
moral,  and  social  ideas  which  have  been  quickened  by  the 
War,  a  religion  which  can  serve  the  age  and  command  the 
respect  of  intelligence  and  the  moral  confidence  of  the 
future  is  lifting  into  form  and  definition  out  of  the  confu- 
sion of  the  hour.  This  much  of  this  religion  is  already 
discernible  and  definable  in  clear  outline :  It  is  to  be  rational, 
spiritual,  democratic,  practical.  It  will  be  a  rational  faith 
versus  irrational  superstition  and  irreligious  rationalism; 
a  spiritual  religion  versus  crass  spiritualism,  gross  mate- 
rialism, and  papal  sacramentarism ;  a  democratic  brother- 
hood and  organization  versus  hierarchical  authority  and 
ecclesiastical  legislation  and  prelatical  overlordship ;  it  will 
be  practical  Christianity  versus  pietism,  ascetism,  and  such 
religious  anomalies  as  an  indolent  orthodoxy  and  church 
affiliation  as  an  entree  to  society.  No  religion  or  religious 
group  can  prosper  in  the  world  of  moral,  social,  political,  and 
religious  ideas  which  is  now  forming,  if  it  lacks  the  above 
cardinal  virtues.  The  slogan  of  the  spiritual  democrats  Df 
the  future  will  be.  No  pope,  cardinal  or  bishop  to  dictate ;  no 
ecclesiastical  assembly  to  legislate ;  no  priest  to  mediate. 

Do  Baptists  hold  a  faith  which  is  the  counterpart  of  these 
elements  of  the  coming  universal  faith?    If  they  do,  then 


I02  MISSIONARY  MESSAGES 

by  such  tokens  we  may  know  that  the  day  of  Baptist  oppor- 
tunity IS  breaking  into  dawn  and  noon  around  the  world. 

Heathen  superstition  and  ecclesiastical  and  priestly  in- 
terpositions must  pass  into  the  limbo  of  religious  archaisms. 
Since  1914  kings,  emperors,  czars,  and  kaisers  have  either 
been  dethroned  or  stripped  of  their  ancient  powers.  Wit- 
ness Germany,  Russia,  Austria,  Bohemia,  etc.,  etc.  There 
has  been  a  wholesale  dethronement  of  these  political  auto- 
crats. In  an  hour  when  men  are  throwing  off  the  yoke  of 
human  authority  the  obligation  to  create  in  them  spiritual 
impulses  is  solemnly  great.  The  hour  is  desperately  peril- 
ous without  Christ's  steadying  hand  on  a  democratized 
world. 

Crowned  and  mitered  ecclesiastics  will  go  next,  begin- 
ning or  ending  with  the  audacious  "Vicegerent  of  Christ*' 
on  the  Tiber.  The  recent  crowning  of  Pope  Pius  XI 
filled  the  world  with  disgust.  His  lordly  assumption,  his 
befrocked  retinue,  his  servile  satellites,  each  and  all  are 
anachronism  in  this  day  of  democracy.  Men  know  that 
such  claims  and  such  ecclesiastical  pomposity  do  not  repre- 
sent the  lowly  Jesus.  The  ecclesiastical  hierarchs  must  go 
the  way  of  political  autocrats  with  advancing  enlightenment 
and  spiritual  freedom.  Their  usurped  and  cherished 
thrones  of  authority  are  not  safe  in  the  world  because  democ- 
racy is  not  safe  with  them. 

But  religion  purged  and  refined  the  world  will  need  and 
have.     Religion  is  its  main  hope,  its  chief  necessity. 

The  Significance  of  These  Things 

Now  what  is  the  significance  of  this  survey  of  new  world 
conditions?  What  is  there  in  all  this  extraordinariness  of 
the  hour  to  command  the  attention  of  the  Christian  men 
who  are  behind  the  missionary  enterprise?  Let  me  give  a 
brief  answer  to  that  question. 

1.  There  is  a  new  missionary  urgency  and  imperativeness. 
Religion,  the  Christian  religion,  and  the  Christian  religion 
in  its  best  form  and  at  its  best  only  can  deal  with  a  world 


NEW  CONDITIONS  103 

situation  such  as  this.  All  these  elements  of  the  new 
order,  these  common  aspects  of  a  world  situation,  are  moral 
in  their  character,  and  as  moral  questions  have  their  roots 
in  the  religious  question.  Have  you  set  your  heart  on 
the  Disarmament  Conference?  You  are  doomed  to  disap- 
pointment. In  the  first  place,  that  Conference  was  not  a 
(fz^armament  Conference.  That  is  a  most  significant  fact. 
It  proposed  to  reduce  arms  but  not  to  abandon  and  outlaw 
the  sword,  the  cannon,  the  torpedo.  If  two  of  your  neigh- 
bors have  a  misunderstanding  and  are  carrying  two  guns 
each,  and  they  should,  under  the  persuasion  of  mutual 
friends,  agree  to  carry  but  one  pistol,  they  might  still  have 
a  fight  with  fatal  results.  That  which  establishes  peace  in 
this  world  must  deal  with  the  warring  spirit  of  man  and 
subdue  hate  and  revenge.  That  is  the  task  of  the  mission- 
ary rather  than  the  diplomat. 

2.  This  world  situation  makes  up  an  American  responsi- 
bility. During  the  War  America  assumed  to  speak  for 
democracy,  for  small  nations  and  weak ;  to  champion  moral 
idealism  in  the  realm  of  internationalism.  Such  preach- 
ment of  lofty  ethics  as  President  Wilson  indulged  was 
never  before  undertaken  by  a  nation's  leader  and  spokesman 
since  human  hate  slew  the  Prince  of  Peace.  Henceforth 
America  will  be  judged  by  her  lofty  standards.  By  our 
preaching  we  have  increased  our  responsibilities.  Nations 
are  investigating  nations  and  America  perhaps  more  than 
any  other  is  being  investigated.  This  is  a  new  fact  and 
belongs  to  conditions  which  call  for  serious  reflection.  Men 
are  learning  our  language  and  entering  our  educational  in- 
stitutions to  learn  our  philosophy  of  life.  They  are  touring 
our  country,  studying  our  government,  seeking  to  know  us, 
the  secret  of  our  power,  and  to  discover  the  foundations  of 
our  civilization.     We  have  great  responsibility. 

America  has  the  most  adequate  supply  of  the  gospel  with 
which  to  meet  the  world's  need  and  of  money  to  transport 
it.  Men  and  women  here  have  been  more  completely  and 
generally  emancipated  from  priestcraft  and  tradition  and 
hold  the  missionary  message  in  greater  purity  than  in  any 


I04  MISSIONARY  MESSAGES 

iland  of  the  globe.  Our  nation  has  a  weakh  of  350  billions, 
while  the  British  Empire,  Italy,  and  France  have  a  com- 
bined wealth  of  but  247  billions.  Against  our  350  billions 
is  a  war  debt  of  7%,  while  against  the  247  billions,  combined 
wealth  of  Britain,  Italy  and  France,  is  a  war  debt  which 
amounts  to  45%.  We  have  the  gospel  which  the  world 
needs  and  we  are  able  to  finance  a  world  program  with  less 
sacrifice  than  any  Christian  people  on  earth. 

3.  This  world  situation  presents  a  new  Baptist  oppor- 
tunity. What  is  there  in  the  new  demands  which  is  not  in 
the  old  Baptist  faith?  Some  talk  much  nowadays  about 
democracy  in  religion,  about  self-governing  churches.  It 
is  evident  that  many  of  these  orators  and  writers  have 
stumbled  upon  what  they  take  to  be  new  phrases  and  new 
ideas,  but  which  are  commonplace  among  our  people.  The 
mind  of  the  Christian  world  has  simply  found  a  new  ad- 
justment to  our  contention.  We  have  known  no  other  sort 
of  church  than  a  self-governing  one.  And  when  Baptists 
say  church  they  mean  a  church  and  not  a  denomination. 

As  a  part  of  the  argument  for  the  indigenous  church  on 
the  foreign  field,  the  denominations  are  being  admonished 
not  to  carry  historical  and  sectarian  accretions  to  these  fields. 
The  Baptist  contention  has  been  always  and  everywhere 
that  these  should  be  abandoned.  We  have  insisted  that 
organized  Christianity  be  stripped  of  inherited  ecclesiasti- 
cisms,  ritual  forms,  prelatical  offices,  in  short,  of  all  un- 
scriptural  and  anti-scriptural  officers,  forms,  and  formulas ; 
and  that  Christian  men  shall  accept  the  Bible  and  be  bound 
by  what  it  teaches  and  by  what  it  teaches  only.  Do  this 
and  what  is  left  will  be  a  truly  indigenous  Christianity, 
both  for  America  and  all  other  nations.  Everything  that 
ought  to  be  eliminated  from  the  Christianity  which  we 
preach  ought  to  be  eliminated  from  the  Christianity  we 
practice.  The  religion  of  the  New  Testament  is  for  "all 
the  world." 

The  denomination  which  is  patterned  after  the  New 
Testament  has  no  need  of  change  to  meet  the  needs  of 
China  or  any  other  land.     Let  the  advocates  of  the  in- 


NEW  CONDITIONS  105 

digenous  church  point  out  a  single  particular  in  which 
Baptists  have  inherited  an  unscriptural  or  an  anti-scriptural 
article  of  faith,  office,  form,  ceremony,  and  by  their  very 
standard  of  orthodoxy  Baptists  are  called  upon  to  abandon 
it.  But  until  some  one  does  this,  the  call  to  leave  inheri- 
tance behind  when  going  to  the  mission  field,  does  not  apply 
to  Baptists.  Let  those  who  preach  the  indigenous  church 
for  China  practice  it  in  America.  The  church  which  Amer- 
ica and  China  alike  need  is  not  an  American  or  a  Chinese 
church,  but  a  Scriptural  church.  And  the  new  world  con- 
ditions are  giving  such  churches  their  big  opportunity. 
From  the  beginning  Baptists  squared  their  faith  to  this 
demand,  declined  to  acknowledge  the  historical  accretions, 
and  much  of  their  unpopularity  has  been  due  to  their  age- 
long beseeching  of  others  to  do  so.  What  others  would  not 
do  upon  the  appeal  of  Baptists,  they  will  be  forced  to  do 
upon  the  demand  of  the  future. 

4.  The  world  situation  is  significant  because  it  is 
transient.  The  opportunity  will  not  wait.  One  has  said 
that  "heathenism  is  so  ripe  that  it  will  spoil  unless  gathered 
quickly."  Every  man  who  knows  the  mission  fields  of  the 
modem  world  knows  that  doors  of  opportunity  have  been 
jarred  open  by  the  World  War.  He  also  knows  that  these 
doors  will  not  stand  open  for  us  if  we  are  slow  to  enter 
them.  If  we  are  to  buy  up  the  great  opportunities  now  on 
the  market,  we  must  act  promptly.  No  power  on  earth 
can  ever  turn  the  nations  back.  The  world  will  never  again 
be  the  world  it  was.  Men  have  been  shaken  out  of  their 
former  selves  and  are  faced  forward.  They  move  into  a 
future  which  they  will  make  with  or  without  our  help.  They 
will  carry  with  them  their  jealousies,  suspicions,  hates,  and 
with  these  mold  the  future  and  mar  it  if  we  do  not  now 
reach  them  with  a  regenerating,  renovating,  transforming 
gospel.  If  we  are  to  save  the  future,  we  must  save  the  men 
of  to-day.  These  men  have  already  begun  to  make  the 
future.  Opportunity  now  so  great  and  alluring  will  gradu- 
ally fade  with  every  passing  hour  of  our  hesitation  and 
neglect. 


io6  MISSIO'NARY  MESSAGES 


How  Does  Such  an  Hour  and  Such  Conditions  Find  Amer- 
ican Baptists? 

First  of  all,  it  finds  them  with  great  campaigns  started 
for  funds  and  for  recruits  with  which  to  meet  the  extraor- 
dinary foreign  mission  situation.  These  campaigns  were 
started  under  the  inspiration  and  urgency  of  the  new  world 
conditions.  Nothing  had  taken  place  in  America  so  un- 
usual as  to  start  campaigns  so  exceptional.  It  was  God's 
call  which  rang  through  the  new  world  conditions  and  awoke 
Southern  Baptists  in  Atlanta  in  1919,  and  it  is  this  which 
more  than  anything  else  has  kept  their  75-Million  Campaign 
alive  and  compelled  response  to  its  appeal.  Events  have 
shown  that  there  was  no  exaggeration  of  the  world  con- 
ditions which  would  follow  the  War.  Need  is  as  great,  op- 
portunity as  promising  and  as  urgent,  and  the  danger  of 
religious  neglect  in  the  work  of  rebuilding  the  world  is  as 
serious  as  we  were  warned  it  would  be. 

And  yet  there  is  temptation  to  accept  through  familiarity 
a  situation  as  a  commonplace  and  to  fall  back  into  com- 
placent ease.  That  the  world  has  reached  its  moral  crisis, 
no  one  can  doubt  who  familiarizes  himself  with  the  facts 
and  is  capable  of  intelligent  appraisement  of  them.  That 
God  and  religion  only  can  meet  this  crisis  and  see  society 
past  this  crucial  hour  of  destiny  does  not  admit  of  debate. 
To  an  alarming  degree,  the  weal  and  woe  of  the  world  are  in 
the  hands  of  American  Christians.  We  can  at  this  pivotal 
hour  decide  whether  it  shall  be  weal  or  woe  in  many  lands 
of  the  globe.  The  moral  strain  of  new  world  conditions  is 
at  this  hour  too  great  for  many  nations  unaided  by  the 
religious  forces  of  America.  Take  Russia  as  an  example. 
The  moral  foundations  have  given  way.  Whether  the  na- 
tion is  to  be  rebuilt  of  wood,  hay,  or  stubble  depends  largely 
upon  the  part  which  America  takes  in  its  reconstruction. 
Indifference  to  facts  like  these  will  condemn  and  disgrace 
American  Christianity. 

Nothing  could  so  strongly  commend  the  campaigns  which 


NEW  CONDITIONS  107 

Northern  and  Southern  Baptists  are  at  this  time  conducting 
as  these  new  world  conditions.  The  foreign  mission  agen- 
cies of  the  denomination  are  set  peculiarly  to  meet  these 
new  conditions,  even  as  the  campaigns  were  inspired  by 
them.  How  can  any  Christian  man  review  the  extraordi- 
nary world  situation  and  not  feel  his  heart  well-nigh  pulled 
out  of  him,  all  his  selfishness  burnt  out,  his  very  soul  merged 
into  the  compassions  of  Christ  for  a  distraught  world  for 
which  we  have  healing  consolation  and  redemption?  How 
can  he  do  it  and  fail,  even  at  great  sacrifice,  to  pay  his 
pledge  to  and  give  his  support  to  these  campaigns?  Some 
one  has  said  that  "A  Christian  is  a  man  whom  God  has 
trusted  with  the  souls  of  his  fellowmen."  If  that  is  true, 
measure  if  you  can  your  individual  responsibility  in  an  hour 
like  this.  The  world's  supreme  peril  confronts  us  with 
supreme  obligation. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

THE  RELATION  OF  THE  MISSIONARY  MESSAGE  TO  MISSIONARY 

SUCCESS 

LOOSE  and  false  views  of  Christian  truth,  which  have 
become  so  common  and  so  flagrant  here  at  home,  have 
reached  the  mission  fields.  Error  is  a  great  traveler.  It 
uses  many  means  of  transportation  and  propagation.  It  is 
frequently  a  stowaway,  and  sometimes  gets  to  the  mission 
fields  in  the  baggage  of  missionaries,  tourists,  and  others 
who  touch  the  lives  of  foreign  peoples.  Some  mission 
boards  have  grown  lax  in  the  doctrinal  requirements  of  can- 
didates. The  number  of  foreign  students  in  the  American 
schools  have  greatly  multiplied,  and  many  of  these  return  to 
their  home-lands  with  their  heads  stuffed  with  "the  phi- 
losophy of  Christianity"  rather  than  the  gospel  of  Christ. 
The  free-lance  university  professor  has  his  chance  with 
large  numbers  of  these  foreign  students,  who,  in  their  im- 
maturity, are  easy  victims  to  the  all  too  common  university 
views  of  Christian  truth.  Some  of  the  Christian  colleges 
also  have  in  them  men  who  are  impatient  of  any  statement 
of  positive  Christian  faith.  Young  men  go  to  the  field 
under  such  influence  unprepared  to  meet  the  strong  tides 
of  skeptical  thought  which  move  about  them  in  their  new 
environment.  The  increasing  flow  of  radical  literature,  in 
English  and  translation,  carries  its  germs  into  all  intellectual 
circles  on  all  mission  fields. 

The  union  movements  have  fostered  indiscrimination  for 
truth,  taken  the  edge  off  personal  conviction,  and  opened  the 
doors  of  sentiment,  through  which  pass  the  enemies  of 
Christian  truth  on  the  arms  of  those  who,  to  prove  them- 
selves big  brothers,  have  discarded  distinctive  faith.  The 
apostle  of  the  brotherhood  of  man  fraternizes  with  the  ene- 
mies of  God  and  the  gospel. 

loS 


THE  MESSAGE  AND  SUCCESS  109 


UNITARIANISM 

But  perhaps  the  most  insidious  error  now  being  carried  to 
the  mission  fields  of  the  world  is  that  which  Unitarians  are 
propagating.  They  are  devoting  especial  attention  to  Euro- 
pean fields  at  this  time.    They  epitomize  their  gospel : 

*'The   Brotherhood  of   Man, 
The  Fatherhood  of  God, 
Salvation  by  Character." 

This  faith  has  produced  such  spiritual  drouth  at  home 
that  Unitarianism-  is  dry  in  the  stalk.  It  is  almost  barren 
of  converts  and  preachers  in  this  country,  and  has  become 
dependent  upon  evangelical  preachers  to  propagate  its  mes- 
sage. Unitarians  do  not  send  missionaries  to  the  heathen, 
but  work  by  proxy,  that  is  to  say,  through  evangelicals,  to 
propagate  their  faith.  Unitarian  sermons  which  do  not 
draw  hearers  nor  make  converts  are  being  printed  by  the 
ton  and  furnished  to  young  preachers  at  home  and  abroad. 
Evangelical  France  is  seriously  affected  by  this  propaganda, 
and  reports  from  Europe  tell  of  incoming  tides  of  literature 
in  which  Unitarian  error  is  dressed  up  attractively.  Certain 
immature  and  superficial  minds  are  easily  impressed  by 
ancient  heresies  when  these  are  presented  in  the  guise  of 
modem  and  liberal  thought.  This  fact  is  known  by  some 
men  who  hold  positions  of  influence  and  accounts  for  the 
show  of  originality  and  breadth  which  they  make  in  using 
Unitarian  slogans  to  weaken  the  claims  of  evangelical 
truth. 

The  result  is,  therefore,  that  there  is  doctrinal  unsound- 
ness on  the  mission  fields.  Many  faithful  missionaries  who 
went  out  to  give  their  lives  to  the  propagation  of  the  gospel 
have  become  alarmed  in  recent  months  bythe  inroads  which 
error  is  making,  and  have  sounded  the  trumpet,  calling  to 
their  aid  their  brothers  and  home  boards  to  save  the  mission 
fields  from  inundation  by  error.  If  some  of  the  hoards  were 
not  themselves  too  much  under  the  influence  of  the  radicals 


no  MISSIONARY  MESSAGES 

to  heed  the  call,  rebuke  error  in  their  workers  and  decline 
to  send  forth  men  who  are  without  a  positive  message,  the 
day  could  be  saved  much  quicker  on  the  foreign  field  than 
at  home.  Conditions  there  are  not  yet  as  bad  as  they  are 
here. 

We  arc  gratified  to  reflect  that  the  Foreign  Mission  Board 
of  the  Southern  Baptist  Convention  saw  the  dangers  of  the 
union  movement,  and  defined  its  missionary  policies  in  1916, 
and,  seeing  that  error  ran  in  the  wake  of  this  movement,  pre- 
pared, in  1919,  a  "Statement  of  Belief"  for  the  examination 
of  its  candidates  which  has  made  it  almost  impossible  for  a 
man  to  receive  appointment  by  this  Board  who  has,  by  what- 
ever influence,  been  robbed  of  the  faith  of  the  Commission 
under  which  mission  boards  are  supposed  to  operate. 

The  So-Called  ''Social  Gospel" 

The  false  antithesis  between  doctrine  and  social  service 
has  contributed  to  the  complexity  of  the  situation  on  the 
foreign  field  as  at  home.  The  new  champion  of  the  ^'Social 
Gospel"  thinks  that  a  doctrinal  ministry  is  the  enemy  of 
practical  Christian  living.  Some  men  seem  to  be  able  to 
think  only  with  one  lobe  of  their  brains  at  a  time.  What- 
ever they  happen  to  be  stressing  is  antithetic  to  something 
else.  Truth  with  them  is  not  only  in  contradiction  to  error, 
but  to  truth  itself.  They  do  not  see  the  supplementary  rela- 
tion between  doing  and  doctrine,  experimental  Christianity 
and  Christian  truth,  between  sociology  and  theology.  Be- 
cause one  is  true  the  other  must  be  false.  The  genius  for 
false  antithesis  is  a  mark  of  a  little  and  yet  a  dangerous 
mind. 

But  there  is  more  the  matter  with  the  Social  Gospeler 
than  this.  In  the  first  place,  he  fancies  that  he  is  entitled 
to  a  place  in  the  foremost  ranks  of  the  thinkers,  because 
he  is  an  advocate  of  something  new.  He  berates  the  teach- 
ing of  the  old  school,  and,  alleging  that  it  did  not  produce 
social  fruit,  charges  the  discrediting  omission  to  a  doctrinal 
ministry.     Now,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  social  service  is  no 


THE  MESSAGE  AND  SUCCESS  iii 

new  thing  among  Christian  men.  There  is,  to  be  sure,  a 
difference  in  the  way  it  is  done  and  it  has,  in  the  mouths  of 
its  modern  advocates,  assumed  the  dignity  of  an  "ology" — 
sociology.  Sociology  sounds  better  to  the  modem  ear  than 
the  words,  "Do  good  to  all  men."  Sociology  is  a  science  to  be 
taught  a  class:  doing  good  is  a  duty  to  be  practiced  by  all 
Christians.  Social  science  tells  a  few  folks  how  to  do  some- 
thing for  the  neighborhood;  the  old  custom  was  for  each 
individual  to  do  his  duty  by  his  neighbors.  Old  preachers 
did  not  know  so  much  about  sociology,  but  they  did  teach 
their  hearers  to  visit  the  sick,  the  widows  and  the  fatherless ; 
and  no  neighbor  to  the  Christian  man  in  the  older  communi- 
ties was  allowed  to  go  hungry  or  without  a  watcher  by  his 
or  her  bedside  in  time  of  sickness.  The  modern  paid  nurse 
knows  better  how  to  take  the  pulse  than  our  grandmothers 
did,  but  she  does  not  bear  a  more  effective  testimony  to 
the  Christian  spirit  and  to  unselfish  and  thoughtful  Christian 
love.  Under  the  social  regime  we  have  more  organizations 
and  reports,  but  I  am  not  sure  that  we  have  more  social 
workers.  It  is  a  false  comparison  to  charge  the  lack  of 
social  service  to  the  men  and  women  of  the  old  school  who 
did  not  send  representatives  to  discharge  their  social  obliga- 
tions, nor  themselves  go  about  neighborly  ministrations 
garbed  to  advertise  their  mission.  It  is  a  false  comparison 
to  represent  theology  and  sociology  as  contradictory  sciences. 
One  is  a  doctrine ;  the  other  is  duty.  The  doctrine  produces 
the  practical  service.  Too  much  emphasis  upon  social 
service  and  too  little  upon  evangelism  is  affecting  doctrinal 
soundness  on  the  mission  field,  and,  in  the  end,  will  reduce 
the  purest  missionary  results.  It  is  not,  therefore,  a  question 
of  theology  versus  sociology  but  one  of  such  relation  of 
these  and  such  proportionate  emphasis  as  will  secure  the 
desired  missionary  results. 

The  ''Social  Gospel"  is  spoken  of  as  though  it  were  some- 
thing superior  to  the  gospel  of  grace.  Indeed,  it  is  pre- 
sented by  some  as  the  only  gospel.  As  a  matter  of  fact, 
to  state  the  case  bluntly,  there  is  no  such  thing  as  a  social 
gospel.     x\djectives  before  gospel  do  not  magnify,  but  minify 


112  MISSIONARY  MESSAGES 

the  gospel.  The  word  gospel  compasses  contents  which 
make  full  its  meaning  and  without  which  it  is  incomplete. 
Eliminate  these  contents,  and  you  have  no  gospel.  There 
are,  of  course,  social  duties  which  are  binding  upon  all  men 
and  upon  Christians  in  particular,  of  which  the  best  of  us 
are  derelict;  but,  we  repeat,  there  is  no  such  thing  as  the 
social  gospel.  To  use  the  word  thus  shows  one  to  be  in 
error  as  to  what  the  gospel  is.  The  gospel  is  the  most 
prolific  source  of  social  deeds,  but  social  service  belongs  to 
the  realm  of  Christian  duty  and  not  theology.  The  one  is 
for  Christian  practice ;  the  other  is  for  Christian  preaching. 
There  is  no  contradiction  nor  antagonism  between  them. 
The  one  is  the  fruit  of  the  other.  The  gospel  is  the  world's 
generator  of  social  impulses,  the  fertile  soil  of  which  neigh- 
borly deed  is  the  perennial  fruit.  To  belittle  evangelical 
doctrine  in  an  effort  to  magnify  social  service  convicts  one 
of  being  a  novice  as  a  religious  thinker  and  teacher.  Orphan 
asylums  and  other  humanitarian  institutions  and  benevo- 
lences sprouted  and  have  found  their  fertility  in  hearts 
which  have  been  mellowed  by  the  gospel  of  Christ.  They 
are  nurtured  by  the  truth  which  declares  that  men  redeemed 
by  the  self-renunciating  Christ  are  by  that  redemption  made 
debtors  to  all  men. 

Some  are  ready  to  substitute  the  social  program  for  the 
Commission.  If  China's  millions  of  sick,  hungry  and  un- 
fortunate are  to  have  ministered  to  them  the  compassions  of 
Christ,  if  we  are  to  create  in  China  a  social  conscience  which 
will  compel  wealthy  Chinese  themselves  to  feed  their  hungry 
brothers,  we  must  keep  things  in  their  place.  We  must 
apply  to  the  dead  social  conscience  of  the  Chinese  people 
the  life-giving  Word  of  God.  The  preachers  of  the  social 
gospel  in  China  who  neglect  the  evangelistic  message  will, 
if  left  alone  for  a  season  by  other  workers,  eventually  find 
themselves  surrounded  by  dry  bones.  The  Christian  enter- 
prise will,  even  in  the  hands  of  radicals,  move  on  for  a 
period  under  its  gathered  momentum,  but  if  it  loses  the 
vital  elements  of  the  impulse-giving  gospel,  it  will  presently 
slow  down  in  social  activity.    Unitarian  and  atheistic  thought 


THE  MESSAGE  AND  SUCCESS  113 

have  no  vitalizing  or  propulsive  quality  or  power.  The 
nations  of  the  world  to-day  are,  in  their  civilizations  and 
social  conditions,  a  contemporaneous  and  convincing  witness 
to  the  power  of  the  evangelical  gospel  and  the  impotency 
of  everything  else  heathen,  ecclesiastical  and  intellectual. 
The  gospel  of  Christ  in  its  evangelical  interpretation  is  the 
one  and  only  fecundating  principle  which  has  as  yet  been 
applied  to  the  social  and  moral  order  of  the  world.  Noth- 
ing else  has  the  mysterious  power  to  re-create  character, 
revive  the  social  conscience,  and  rebuild  a  collapsed  race 
or  civilization.  Social  deadness  or  deterioration  is  found 
wherever  the  evangelical  gospel  is  not  found. 

Missionary  Success 

Now,  what  is  the  relation  of  our  message  to  missionary 
success?  If  what  we  have  said  already  commends  itself 
to  the  reader  as  true,  that  relation  should  be  evident.  We 
may,  however,  discuss  the  point  more  directly. 

It  is  one  of  cause  and  effect.  There  can  be  no  mission- 
ary success  without  the  gospel.  Success  is  partial  where 
the  gospel  is  impaired.  There  is  to-day  no  peril  to  the 
missionary  enterprise  like  the  peril  of  an  emasculated  gospel. 
If  the  gospel  of  Jesus  Christ  is  substituted,  mutilated  or 
corrupted  the  missionary  enterprise  is  doomed  to  fail.  If 
w^e  can  save  the  gospel,  we  can  save  the  world.  If  the 
saving  elements  of  the  gospel  are  lost  out  of  our  missionary 
message,  there  is  neither  hope  nor  remedy  for  humanity 
sunken  in  the  mires  of  its  depravity. 

This  is  a  question  for  the  denominations,  the  mission 
boards  and  those  who  train  young  men  and  women  for  mis- 
sion service  to  face  quickly  and  frankly  and  in  the  fear  of 
God.  Doctrinal  unsoundness  is  already  affecting  the  mis- 
sionary enterprise.  Error  has  its  missionaries.  Propa- 
gandism  is  organized  and  endowed.  The  Christian  message 
is  unique,  and  its  uniqueness  is  essential  to  the  success  of  the 
missionary  enterprise. 

Responsibility  rests  upon  our  mission  boards  and  upon 


114  MISSIONARY  MESSAGES 

our  colleges  and  seminaries,  but  finally,  of  course,  upon  the 
denominations  which  control  or  should  control  all  of  these 
agencies  for  the  propagation  of  the  gospel  of  Christ.  Our 
colleges  and  seminaries  stand  at  the  crucial  point  in  our 
battle  line.  They  can  more  quickly  than  any  other  agency 
correct  so  much  of  the  evil  as  exists  among  Baptists.  Our 
teachers  and  schools  have  the  first  chance  at  young  men, 
when  in  their  thinking  they  are  beginning  to  venture  into 
untried  fields  of  religious  investigation  and  are  most  liable 
to  get  started  in  wrong  directions  morally  and  mentally. 
If  the  teachers  are  without  a  positive  message,  if  they 
have  no  convictions  concerning  the  truth,  if  they  do  not  give 
convincing  explanations,  but  leave  young  men  to  find  their 
own  way,  often  supplied  with  the  implements  of  the  enemy 
with  which  to  guide  their  investigations,  then  doctrinal 
unsoundness  will  wax  greater  at  home  and  abroad. 

After  having  some  opportunities  to  study  missions  in  the 
home  lands  and  foreign  lands,  I  give  as  my  deliberate  opinion 
that  schools  are  either  to  be  the  greatest  allies  of  the  churches 
in  giving  the  gospel  of  Christ  to  the  world,  or  they  are  to 
prove  at  last  to  have  been  the  most  deadly  enemies  of  this 
enterprise.  I  believe  that  those  who  discuss  our  schools 
should  do  it  in  fine  self-restraint,  and  with  a  conscience  not 
to  weaken  the  influence  of  any  man  or  school  who  or  which 
is  a  helper  to  the  truth.  I  suppose  none  of  us  who  love 
the  gospel  of  Christ  and  believe  it  to  be  the  hope  of  the 
world  would  deny  that  there  are  a  few  teachers  in  our 
schools  who  are  hesitant  to  state  their  views  of  Christian 
truth  nor  that  some  teach  positive  error.  Such  men  ought 
to  be  dealt  with  by  those  who  are  responsible  for  the  work 
which  they  are  doing.  The  risk  of  neglect  to  do  so  is  too 
great  to  be  taken.  If  it  is  our  business  to  propagate  the 
gospel,  we  should  not  pay  anybody  to  deny  it. 

The  writer  is,  however,  glad  that  after  many  years  of 
dealing  with  the  products  of  our  schools  and  missionary  ap- 
pointees at  home  and  abroad,  he  can  say  that  these  schools 
have  contributed  immeasurably  more  to  the  faithful  procla- 
mation and  propagation  of  the  gospel  of  Christ  than  they 


THE  MESSAGE  AND  SUCCESS  115 

have  to  the  dissemination  of  error.  Speaking  for  the  mis- 
sionary enterprise,  with  which  I  have  been  identified  in  all  its 
organized  departments  for  work  at  home  and  abroad,  I 
must  say  that  we  owe  a  great  debt  to  our  schools  and  to 
the  faithful  men,  who  in  the  quiet  seclusion  of  the  class- 
room and  under  the  necessity  of  economical  living,  have 
poured  the  resources  of  their  lives — mind,  body  and  spirit — 
into  those  who,  passing  from  under  their  care,  become  the 
leaders  of  our  people  and  the  exponents  of  our  faith.  This 
fact  should  not  be  forgotten  when  we  are  discussing  schools 
and  teachers. 

The  bane  of  religious  teaching  in  our  schools  is  more  in 
the  text-books  used  than  in  the  teachers  employed.  A  task 
which  the  denomination  has  not  yet  set  itself  to  is  that  of 
preparing  the  text-books  which  guide  students  in  the  study 
of  religious  subjects.  Here  is  a  challenge  to  some  of  the 
men  in  our  seminaries  and  colleges.  We  have  men  with 
equipment  and  talent  equal  to  this  task,  and  they  have  in 
the  performance  of  it  an  opportunity  to  serve  God,  their 
denomination  and  their  day  and  generation.  We  are  con- 
ducting Christian  schools,  but  too  often  use  text-books 
which  are  produced  by  men  who,  so  far  as  the  gospel  we 
hold  is  concerned,  are  thoroughly  anti-Christian. 

It  gives  us  satisfaction  to  say  that  as  regards  soundness 
of  their  missionary  message,  the  missionaries  of  the  Foreign 
Mission  Board  are  the  advocates  of  sound  views  of  Christian 
truth,  and  the  propagandists  of  a  pure  gospel,  and  w^e  believe 
that,  with  possibly  a  few  almost  insignificant  exceptions, 
the  same  can  be  said  of  the  missionaries  of  all  the  Baptist 
societies.  These  men  and  women  are  the  products  of  our 
schools,  let  it  be  remembered,  and  their  fidelity  to  the  truth 
reflects  credit  upon  the  schools  which  men  of  just  judgment 
will  take  into  account.  These  missionaries  have  stood  the 
test  amidst  incursions  of  error  on  all  fields.  We  thank  God 
for  them,  their  faithful  witness  to  and  their  courageous 
defense  of  the  truth,  and  their  accompanying  passion  for  lost 
men  and  women.  We  have  soldiers  of  the  cross  who  are 
suited  for  service  in  exactly  such  times  as  these  which  have 


ii6  MISSIONARY  MESSAGES 

come  upon  us,  and  for  carrying  to  successful  issue  the  battle 
which  is  now  raging.  It  is  our  solemn  duty  to  reenforce 
these  faithful  ones  by  sending  to  their  help  others  who 
hold,  are  held  by,  and  who  will  hold  forth  the  truth  as 
it  is  in  Christ  and  His  Word. 


CHAPTER  IX 

THE  RELIGION    OF  THE   FUTURE  * 

THE  Great  War  raised  many  questions,  some  of  them 
religious  questions.  It  caused  men  to  ask  such  ques- 
tions as  these:  "Has  Christianity  failed?'*  "Have  we  a 
religion  worth  propagating  ?"  "Will  Christianity  survive  the 
changes  now  in  process?"  I  do  not  wonder  that  men  with 
hearts,  with  souls,  and  human  feelings  cast  about  for  satis- 
fying answers  to  such  religious  questions  in  the  face  of  the 
universal  tumult  and  the  fears  which  made  many  hearts 
stand  still.  How  could  men  read  the  daily  reports  of  human 
suffering,  the  accounts  of  destruction  of  the  flower  of  Euro- 
pean young  manhood,  and  not  be  exercised  to  find  a  recon- 
ciliation of  these  things  with  a  religion  which  has  taught 
us  to  love  our  neighbors  as  ourselves?  When  the  War 
claimed  our  own  sons,  the  religious  questions  were  brought 
closer  home  to  us  and  many  in  America  asked  questions 
which  they  had  never  asked  before.  Some  had  their  re- 
ligious faith  shaken,  while  others  were  in  doubt  and  knew 
not  what  to  believe.  Personally,  as  never  before,  I  found 
myself  falling  back  on  one  thought  and  one  religious  truth 
as  a  solace  for  my  soul  and  the  only  prescription  for  quiet- 
ness of  spirit.  That  truth  is,  God  is  God.  Men  may  froth 
in  their  rage,  but  God  Almighty  is  on  a  throne  "high  and 
lifted  up,"  and  no  human  hate  or  frenzy  can  take  the  reins 
of  government  out  of  His  hands.  There  is  quiet  above  the 
clouds  and  there  is  quiet  under  and  in  the  clouds  for  those 
who  reflect  that  God  cannot  be  defeated. 

True  religion  will  survive  because  God  is  God.  His  pur- 
poses take  account  of  circumstances  and  will  fulfill.    He  is 

*For  more  extended  discussion  of  certain  matters  raised  in  this 
chapter,  see  the  author's  "Unique  Message  and  Universal  Mission 
of  Christianity." 

117 


ii8  MISSIONARY  MESSAGES 

the  source  and  foundation  of  all  true  religion,  and  all  true 
religion  must  survive. 

True  religion  will  survive  both  because  God  is  God  and 
man  is  man.  Religion  is  not  style  or  fashion.  Religion  is 
as  fundamental  as  nature  itself.  The  familiar  words  of 
Sabatier,  that  **man  is  incurably  religious,"  are  true  because 
religiousness  is  of  man's  nature,  inborn  and  ingrained.  "A 
man's  religion  is  the  chief  thing  about  him,"  said  Thomas 
Carlyle.  Therefore  until  nature  and  human  nature  change 
religion  will  survive  all  change.  It  is  not  only  the  chief 
thing  about  a  man;  it  is  the  chief  thing  in  the  life  of  any 
nation  and  of  universal  humanity.  Not  all  nations  have 
concerned  themselves  with  art  and  literature,  with  science 
and  philosophy,  but  every  creature  of  every  nation  has 
instinct  for  religion. 

Human  progress  is  conditioned  upon  the  purity  of  religion 
among  the  respective  human  groups  more  than  upon  any- 
thing else.  Religion  is  the  creative,  productive,  reconstruct- 
ing thing  in  human  life.  Neither  man  nor  society  can  real- 
ize the  higher  values  of  life  without  it.  Religion  will,  more 
than  anything  else,  explain  the  civilization  of  every  nation 
in  the  world.  It  will  explain  not  only  Africa  and  China, 
but  it  will  explain  North  America,  Mexico,  South  America, 
and  the  nations  of  Europe.  Huerta,  Madero,  Villa,  neither 
one  nor  all  of  them  explain  Mexico.  The  religion  which 
is  administrated  from  the  Vatican  in  Rome  explains  both 
the  country  and  these  leaders. 

The  indictment  upon  which  Roman  Catholicism  will  at 
last  be  condemned  before  the  bar  of  enlightened  public 
opinion  is  that  it  has  consistently,  uniformly,  and  universally 
bred  ignorance  and  poverty  among  the  mass  of  its  devotees. 
There  is  no  escaping  that  judgment.  Circumstantial  evi- 
dence was  never  stronger.  Take  unbiased  testimony  con- 
cerning Mexico,  or  any  or  all  the  sunny  isles  or  republics 
of  the  South.  In  every  case  it  is  incriminating.  The  land 
may  be  naturally  rich  and  the  people  naturally  bright,  but 
it  is  the  same  with  the  masses  of  the  people  wherever  Rome 
has  had  time  and  unprotested  opportunity  to  make  the  dem- 


FUTURE  RELIGION  119 

onstration.  Illiteracy,  illegitimacy,  rags  and  want  are  the 
prolific  progeny  of  the  papacy.  The  census  tables  give 
unimpeachable  evidence. 

The  outstanding  aspects  of  nations  are  those  which  are 
most  attributable  to  religion.  There  is  no  other  force  which 
bears  so  directly  upon  the  sources  of  life  as  does  religion. 
There  is  no  indication  that  religion  is  perishing  from  the 
face  of  the  earth.  It  is  not  a  question  of  whether  religion 
will  survive,  but  of  what  is  to  be  the  outcome  of  religious 
competitorships. 


Religion  is  inseparable  from  human  progress.  Unless 
human  progress  must  cease,  religion  must  continue. 

1.  Men  cannot  realize  even  their  intellectual  aims  without 
religion.  Intellectual  advancement  is  conditioned  upon  re- 
ligious knowledge  and  makes  profounder  knowledg*e  of 
religion  necessary.  Religion  is  the  proprietor  of  a  certain 
class  of  facts  which  are  necessary  to  a  rounded  scheme  of 
knowledge.  Material  science  and  intellectual  philosophy  fall 
short  of  their  own  goals  without  the  help  of  religion.  The 
man  who  evades  the  religious  question  is  no  example  of 
superior  intellectuality.  To  the  contrary,  he  gives  evidence 
of  mental  imbecility.  Says  Goethe,  ''The  real  and  deepest 
things  of  the  world's  and  man's  history,  to  which  all  other 
subjects  are  subordinate,  is  the  conflict  between  faith  and 
unbelief."  Tindal  in  his  famous  Belfast  address  said  that 
"religion  will  assuredly  be  handled  by  the  loftiest  minds 
when  you  and  I  like  streaks  of  modern  cloud  be  melted 
into  the  infinite  azure  of  the  past."  Lofty  minds  find  the 
religious  question  a  congenial  one.  The  intellectual  progress 
of  the  world  is  in  the  direction  of  religion  when  it  moves 
on  the  plains  of  greatness  and  toward  its  goal. 

Men  cannot  pursue  the  intellectual  sciences  into  the  higher 
regions  to  which  these  sciences  ascend  without  finding  need 
for  a  knowledge  of  religion.  No  branch  of  the  intellectual 
sciences  is  a  cube.    The  edges  of  every  science  are  serrated. 


I2Q  MISSIONARY  MESSAGES 

You  cannot,  for  instance,  finish  your  arithmetic  without 
some  knowledge  of  algebra,  nor  your  algebra  without  some 
knowledge  of  geometry.  Philosophy  may  be  considered 
the  advance  grade  in  pure  intellectual  culture,  but  the  fron- 
tiers of  philosophy  penetrate  the  borders  of  the  religious 
question  even  as  science  touches  the  borders  of  philosophy. 
All  great  scientists  and  all  great  philosophers  have  been 
great  meddlers  with  religious  questions.  Dr.  John  CHfford 
tells  us  about  a  gathering  fifty  years  ago  composed  of  the 
leading  men  of  art,  science,  and  literature  of  that  day.  A 
dinner  was  served,  and  after  dinner  Dean  Stanley  was 
elected  to  preside  over  the  discussion,  and  he  chose  as  a 
subject  for  deliberation,  who  shall  dominate  the  world? 
Prof.  Huxley  with  his  passion  for  reality  and  his  hatred 
of  sham  and  humbug,  arose  and  said,  "The  nation  to  domi- 
nate the  future  will  be  one  that  is  faithful  to  facts."  Ed- 
ward Miall  replied,  "It  is  true  that  the  nation  to  dominate 
the  future  will  be  the  one  that  is  faithful  to  facts,  but  it 
must  be  faithful  to  all  the  facts  and  the  fact  of  facts  is  God." 
God  who  is  the  explanation  of  all  facts  is  the  goal  of  intel- 
lectual progress  as  well  as  the  boon  of  spiritual  quest. 

2.  The  race  cannot  realize  its  social  and  civil  aims  with- 
out religion.  The  social  progress  of  the  world  requires  a 
settlement  of  the  religious  question.  Social  conditions  are 
determined  by  religion  chiefly.  The  fundamental  aspects 
of  a  nation's  social  life  are  those  which  religion  more  than 
anything  else  can  and  must  regulate.  The  great  religions 
produce  their  respective  types  of  society.  They  are  not 
only  organizations  but  they  are  organizers,  and  they  organize 
on  a  great  scale.  There  is  symbolism  in  the  fact  which 
Prof.  Kidd  has  cited,  that  the  church  spires  claim  first  atten- 
tion when  from  some  eminence  one  gets  his  first  view  of  a 
city,  town,  or  village.  Men  can  never  come  to  a  realization 
of  a  society  based  upon  brotherhood  until  they  learn  the 
secret  and  the  laws  of  society  based  on  the  nature  of  divine 
Fatherhood.  Society  will  not  reach  its  goal  until  men  in 
their  religious  quest  reach  their  goal.  A  Chinese  student, 
graduate  of  one  of  our  great  American  universities,  with 


FUTURE  RELIGION  121 

much  show  of  intellectual  pride,  told  the  writer  that  he  had 
returned  to  his  own  country  to  teach  his  people  that  the 
hope  for  China  was  in  "the  Christian  philosophy  of  the 
West."  We  were  in  China  on  missionary  business,  and  as  a 
part  of  our  mission  told  him  that  Western  philosophy  was 
only  the  evanescent  fragrance  of  the  Christian  religion  in 
America;  that  Christian  civilization  created  the  University, 
and  not  the  University  the  civilization. 

3.  The  world  has  no  chance  to  realize  the  best  political 
ideals  without  religion.  The  beginning  of  a  true  democracy 
is  a  man*s  discovery  that  he  is  a  responsible  being  possessed 
not  only  of  rights,  but  owing  duties  to  society.  A  nation 
may  have  socialists  and  anarchists  without  a  religion,  or 
even  by  the  help  of  a  bad  religion,  but  there  is  no  democratic 
Utopia  for  any  nation  a  controlling  element  of  whose  citi- 
zenship has  not  learned  that  the  soul  has  a  master  and 
that  master  is  God.  Lift  the  restraints  of  autocracy  from 
above  any  people  before  you  have  generated  the  constraints  of 
the  love  of  God  in  them,  and  you  will  have  not  democracy 
but  social  anarchy.  The  march  of  democracy  is  in  the 
wake  of  the  evangelical  missionary  and  the  progress  of 
the  Kingdom  of  God.  This  nation  has  been  the  inspiration 
of  democracy  throughout  the  world  only  because  of  what 
religion  has  done  for  us.  The  democratic  ideal  has  flowered 
in  evangelical  atmosphere. 

4.  Men  cannot  realize  real  business  success  and  security 
without  religion.  There  is  not  a  vocation  or  profession, 
a  calling  or  business,  which  does  not  need  religion  to  give 
it  respectability  and  stability.  Nearly  fifteen  years  ago  a 
Japanese  implored  his  emperor  to  lift  the  embargo  on  the 
Christian  religion,  saying  that  the  Western  civilization  is 
the  leaf  and  blossom  of  Western  religion,  and  that  American 
religion  is  the  root  and  foundation  upon  which  our  pros- 
perity rests.  A  few  years  ago  a  Japanese  business  man 
gave  $100,000  as  a  fund  out  of  which  to  teach  Christian 
moralities  to  the  coming  young  business  men  of  Japan. 
About  the  same  time  a  Japanese  newspaper  offered  several 
prizes  for  the  best  poem  written  by  Japanese.     The  three 


122  MISSIONARY  MESSAGES 

chief  prizes  were  taken  by  Japanese  Christians.  Men  must 
have  the  help  of  rehgion  to  attain  the  highest  success,  and 
the  more  they  become  aware  of  this,  the  stronger  the  prob- 
abihty  that  rehgion  will  survive  all  change. 


II 

But  the  signs  of  the  times  not  only  furnish  convincing 
evidence  that  religion  will  survive,  but  they  give  strong 
evidence  that  sooner  or  later  one  religion  for  all  men  will 
be  realized. 

1.  The  increasing  acquaintance  of  men  with  different 
religions  and  their  respective  fruits  is  a  sign  that  one  re- 
ligion will  after  a  while  be  chosen  as  the  best.  Knowledge 
is  running  to  and  fro  and  up  and  down  the  earth.  An 
inventory  of  the  world's  religions  is  being  taken.  A  survey 
of  religious  conditions  is  in  progress.  Thoughtful  men  are 
collecting  data  upon  which  to  make  a  fair  appraisement  of 
the  world's  religions.  Theologians,  missionaries,  scientists, 
statesmen,  tourists,  are  recording  values  and  reporting  their 
observations.  The  college  students  are  studying  the  returns 
and  weighing  the  evidence  in  favor  of  this  and  that  religion. 
After  a  while  an  impartial  jury  will  be  found  to  bring  in  a 
verdict. 

2.  Certain  agreements  have  already  been  reached.  It  is 
now  conceded  by  the  best  minds  that  there  is  but  one  Su- 
preme Being,  one  central  and  absolute  Unity ;  that  mankind 
constitutes  a  common  brotherhood ;  that  men  have  common 
natures,  religious  needs,  and  common  moral  foes  to  right 
living;  that  they  have  a  common  destiny.  Now  given  one 
God,  a  universal  brotherhood  of  men,  possessed  of  common 
natures,  with  common  religious  needs,  with  a  common  des- 
tiny, what  is  demanded?  Manifestly  a  common  religion. 
That  is  axiomatic.  If  there  is  but  one  God,  it  is  certain 
that  He  cannot  at  last  put  His  imprimatur  upon  but  one 
religion  and  that  religion  the  best  of  them  all.  One  religion 
and  one  only  can  claim  His  seal  and  validation,  and  one 


FUTURE  RELIGION  123 

only  can  meet  the  common  needs  of  a  universal  humanity. 
3.  The  great  religions  are  assuming  a  missionary  offen- 
sive and  declaring  thereby  that  the  issue  between  them  must 
be  settled.  Mohammedanism  is  rivaling  Christianity  in  its 
quest  for  converts.  Buddhism  in  Japan  and  China  has 
learned  to  imitate  Christianity,  is  starting  Sunday  Schools 
and  teaching  children  to  sing.  Those  who  have  penetra- 
tion to  discern  the  deep  and  steady  undercurrents  of  human 
life  and  thought  know  that  these  currents  set  in  one  direc- 
tion. Present  circumstance  may  disturb  the  surface,  but 
divine  purpose  and  decree  hold  them  to  their  courses  and 
toward  their  ultimate  goal.  All  men  who  think  truly  think 
toward  one  another.  One  religion  for  all  men  is  the  focal 
point  of  all  great  thinking  upon  religious  questions.  Noth- 
ing gives  such  unity  to  groups  within  the  human  family 
as  does  a  common  religion.  The  ideal  for  human  brother- 
hood and  for  peaceful  relations  among  men  was  never  so 
ascendant  as  now,  and  this  is  a  sign  of  the  times  which 
betokens  missionary  achievement  and  one  religion  for  all 
men. 


Ill 

But  the  present  tendencies  signify  something  more.  They 
justify  the  forecast  not  only  of  one  religion  for  the  race, 
but  they  indicate  certain  distinct  marks  which  must  char- 
acterize the  final  religion. 

1.  The  final  religion  will  be  rational.  The  human  mind 
is  expanding.  It  is  gaining  zest  for  fact  and  gradually 
breaking  down  the  walls  of  ignorance,  superstition  and  un- 
reality. The  minutest  atom  of  matter  and  infinitesimal  life 
have  become  significant,  and  the  truth  about  them  is  found 
to  be  worthy  of  a  philosopher's  profoundest  and  most  pro- 
longed duty.  The  growing  enlightenment  reveals  that  heath- 
enism is  in  the  jungles,  Romanism  is  in  the  wilderness,  and 
Christian  Science  is  on  the  back  trail.  Men  with  brains 
will  not  be  persuaded  that  there  is  virtue  in  a  string  of 


124  MISSIONARY  MESSAGES 

beads,  or  religion  in  kissing  the  marble  toe  of  an  image, 
or  crossing  the  face  with  a  little  foul  water.  The  intelli- 
gence of  the  world  will  eventually  cast  away  holy  water 
and  priestly  mesmerism,  just  as  men  have  already  bashfully 
taken  the  horseshoes  from  over  the  door  and  the  rabbit's 
foot  out  of  their  pockets.  The  men  of  to-morrow  will  not 
join  Christian  Science  in  declaring  the  microscope  and  tele- 
scope are  liars.    The  universal  final  religion  will  be  rational. 

2.  The  final  religion  will  be  spiritual.  Psychology  has 
accredited  the  religious  experience.  Scholars  as  well  as  theo- 
logians are  calling  for  a  religion  which  is  spiritual  and  ex- 
perimental. Men  have  heads,  but  they  have  hearts  and 
souls,  and  the  demands  of  heart  and  soul  are  as  imperious 
as  the  demands  of  intellectuality.  Men  have  their  spiritual 
hungers  and  thirsts  which  are  as  mandatory  as  a  child's 
cry  for  bread  or  water.  Neither  materialism,  philosophy 
nor  priestly  genuflections  will  satisfy  the  enlightened  human 
soul  nor  satisfy  the  demands  of  an  enlightened  public. 
There  is  sure  to  be  a  growing  demand  for  the  very  words 
of  Christ  which  are  "spirit  and  life." 

3.  The  final  religion  will  be  democratic.  The  thrones 
of  kings  are  crumbling  and  autocracies  are  becoming  obso- 
lete. Since  1914  crowns  have  been  snatched  from  the  heads 
of  czars  and  kaisers,  kings  and  emperors,  and  monarchies 
have  been  turned  into  republics  in  the  whirl  of  human  revo- 
lutions. Wherever  crowns  are  still  worn  their  possessors 
are  shorn  of  all  real  kingly  authority.  One  may  be  certain 
that  religion,  which  is  a  thing  of  the  soul  and  finds  junction 
with  the  seat  of  manhood,  will  not  long  tolerate  in  its  realm 
that  which  has  been  discarded  in  politics.  Individual  souls 
everywhere  are  emerging  from  the  reign  of  their  masters. 
They  are  finding  that  he  who  has  Christ  for  his  Lord 
needs  none  other,  and  that  Christ  is  too  great  for  the  soul 
to  divide  its  tribute  between  Him  and  another. 

The  march  of  the  world  toward  democracy  is  sure  to 
relegate  many  religious  leaders.  "Buddhism,"  says  a  dis- 
tinguished writer,  "takes  no  attitude  toward  democracy." 


FUTURE  RELIGION  125 

So  much  the  worse  for  Buddhism.  So  much  the  better  for 
democracy!  Romanism  has  taken  an  attitude,  but  that 
attitude  is  hostile  to  the  soul  of  freedom  and  to  direct  per- 
sonal approach  to  God  by  every  individual.  There  has  been 
in  these  last  days  nothing  quite  so  incongruous  with  the 
spirit  of  the  times  as  the  crowning  of  a  religious  monarch 
on  the  banks  of  the  Tiber  in  the  month  of  February,  1922. 
But  the  laws  of  progress  are  in  process  of  eliminating  such 
inheritances  from  the  days  of  monarchical  rule,  and  popes 
will  shortly  pass  to  the  curio  shelves  of  the  museums  and 
their  present  devotees  will  claim  their  inalienable  rights  and 
exercise  their  soul  freedom  in  the  democracy  of  the  race. 
In  the  awakening  of  man's  soul  to  the  supreme  privilege  of 
personal  communion  with  God,  he  will  be  done  with  human 
paternalism. 

4.  The  religion  of  the  future  will  be  practical.  It  must 
bring  forth  fruits  meet  for  repentance.  It  will  prove  that 
it  is  from  God  by  saving  and  serving  men.  The  badge  of 
religious  kinship  will  be  the  garment  of  service.  The  brief 
months  which  have  succeeded  the  Great  War  have  witnessed 
unprecedented  progress  in  practical  religion.  This  will  for- 
ever discount  those  forms  of  religion  which  are  irresponsive 
to  the  world's  need.  The  best  religion  is  mankind's  best 
friend.  That  religion  which  lifts  the  fog  of  ignorance  from 
a  people,  and  lifts  society  to  plains  of  moral  purity,  culture, 
comfort,  personal  value,  thus  helping  men  fulfill  themselves, 
will  at  last  be  man's  favorite. 

Rational,  spiritual,  democratic,  practical — these  are  marks 
of  the  coming  religion.  These  elements  are  emerging 
out  of  universal  conditions  and  outline  definition  is  already 
possible.  Such  a  religion  will  help  man  fulfill  himself  in 
mind,  in  soul,  and  in  all  social  relationships,  and  will  convert 
his  redeemed  and  heightened  powers  into  helpful  ministries 
for  his  brothers  of  every  nation,  class,  and  condition.  The 
religion  of  the  future  promises  to  be  altruistic  beyond  any- 
thing which  men  have  ever  known  in  all  the  long  history 
of  the  world. 


126  MISSIONARY  MESSAGES 

IV 

What  religion  can  stand  the  test  of  these  conditions  which 
the  times  are  putting  upon  religion  ?  Not  heathenism,  for  it 
is  not  rational ;  not  Mohammedanism,  for  it  is  not  spiritual ; 
not  Roman  Catholicism,  for  it  is  not  democratic.  Not 
one  or  all  of  these,  for  alike  they  are  not  practical.  They 
do  not  minister  to  public  enlightenment,  nor  strengthen 
the  case  for  those  very  things  in  modern  civilization  which 
are  the  source  of  human  progress.  These  types  of  religion 
have  not  produced  the  conditions  and  tendencies  of  the 
present  and  cannot  endure  the  ordeal  which  they  will  face 
when  the  real  forces  in  modern  civilization  have  a  little 
further  advanced  their  lines,  and  these  lines  have  a  little 
closer  converged.  All  this  is  but  saying  that  evangelical 
Christianity  and  this  alone  is  equal  to  a  crisis  and  a  crucible 
for  religion  like  that  into  which  we  are  surely  being  borne, 
impelled  by  the  irresistible  forces  of  the  modern  world. 
Many  religions  will  shortly  be  found  to  be  obsolete.  Many 
of  the  accretions  which  in  the  course  of  history  have  attached 
to  religion  will  in  the  new  day  that  is  dawning  fall  from 
Christianity  as  the  barnacles  fall  from  the  hull  of  the  great 
ship  when  she  comes  from  the  great  sea  and  moves  into  the 
fresh  water  of  the  river.  Many  things  that  have  attached 
themselves  to  religion  cannot  possibly  survive;  but  that 
which  at  the  first  was  religious  truth,  religious  experience, 
religious  Ufe  and  force  will  be  such  in  the  end.  A  little  more 
enlightenment,  a  little  more  spirituality,  and  a  little  more 
democracy  in  the  world,  and  heathenism  and  the  Roman 
hierarchy  will  capitulate  to  reason,  the  demands  of  soul 
freedom  and  experimental  religion. 


What  are  the  chances  for  the  Baptist  faith  and  the  Baptist 
people  in  the  face  of  these  tokens?  To  my  mind  these 
conditions  constitute  nothing  less  than  the  call  of  a  great 
opportunity  for  the  Baptists  of  the  world.    If  we  stand  forth 


FUTURE  RELIGION  127 

with  our  vital  message  and  do  not  lose  our  distinctive  note 
in  the  tumult  incident  to  the  adjustments  of  the  hour,  we 
shall  shortly  realize  the  dreams  and  see  fulfilled  the  prayers 
and  hopes  of  saints  and  sages  who  have  wrought  in  expec- 
tation of  such  an  hour. 

Mind  you,  I  say  stand  forth  with  our  principles.  I  do  not 
say  stand  by  them  merely.  We  shall  not  enter  into  our 
inheritance  by  simply  guarding  our  faith.  It  is  true  that 
missionary  activity  without  a  gospel  message  is  wasted  labor, 
but  it  is  also  true  that  there  is  no  such  thing  as  a  vital 
orthodoxy  without  the  missionary  spirit  and  practice.  We 
must  hold  the  truth  fast  and  we  must  hold  it  forth.  To 
attempt  to  preach  without  a  pure  gospel  is  heterodoxy,  but 
in  idleness  to  boast  of  our  faith  is  hypocrisy.  If  the 
Baptist  people  can  be  persuaded  to  make  faithful  use  of 
their  message,  great  victories  are  assured. 

The  world's  call  for  a  religion  which  is  reasonable,  spir- 
itual, and  democratic  indicates  that  the  Baptist  day  is  at 
high  noon.  I  can  hear  the  very  doors  of  Baptist  oppor- 
tunity creaking  on  their  hinges  in  the  changing  order — in 
Central  Europe,  in  Russia,  in  China,  and  South  America. 
What  is  the  meaning  of  our  consistent  defense  and  of  our 
appeal  to  private  judgment  and  of  individual  responsibility? 
Of  our  insistence  upon  personal,  intelligent  obedience  to 
the  Word  of  God?  Our  age-long  contention  for  the  per- 
sonal rights  of  every  believer,  equality  among  church  mem- 
bers, and  for  independent,  self-governing  churches?  Have 
we  not  all  the  time  been  thus  paying  tribute  to  intelligence 
in  religion,  raising  a  demand  for  popular  enlightenment, 
and  declaring  for  a  rational  religion?  Have  we  not  always 
risked  our  cause  upon  an  appeal  to  intelligent  personal 
choice  rather  than  to  predilection?  We  have  declared  the 
authority  of  revealed  truth  rather  than  venerated  tradition. 
Have  not  Baptists  appealed  to  personal  conviction  and 
decision  rather  than  to  biased  parental  proxy,  to  conscience 
rather  than  to  ecclesiastic  authority?  A  popular  demand 
for  a  rational,  experimental,  democratic  religion  does  not 
take  Baptists  by  surprise. 


:i28  MISSIONARY  MESSAGES 

What  has  been  the  meaning  of  our  contention  for  per- 
sonal regeneration  before  any  one  is  admitted  to  the  priv- 
ileges of  Christian  ordinance  or  church  membership?  The 
new  recognition  of  the  reahty  of  rehgious  experience,  and 
the  demand  for  experimental  spiritual  religion  is  all  in  the 
direction  of  the  doctrine  of  the  new  birth  which  with  Bap- 
tists has  been  the  primary  condition  of  church  privilege,  and 
which  alone  admits  to  Christian  fellowship.  Those  who 
still  defend  ceremonial  membership  will  suffer  serious  handi- 
cap before  the  world's  demand  for  experimental  religion, 
but  it  is  equally  obvious  that  those  who  have  consistently 
affirmed  the  reality  and  necessity  of  personal  experience  of 
God  and  consistently  denied  the  religious  value  of  mere  form 
or  ceremony,  will  not  be  called  to  revise  their  creeds  in 
the  future. 

How  will  the  coming  age  of  democracy  affect  our  can- 
didacy ?  Have  we  not  fully  tested  democracy  as  a  working 
policy  in  religious  matters,  and  thereby  set  up  a  claim  for 
recognition  as  its  thorough-going  champions?  The  friends 
of  those  forms  of  religion  which  require  a  vicegerent  to  leg- 
islate, or  a  priest  to  mediate,  or  an  ecclesiastical  court  to 
adjudicate  in  religious  matters  had  better  get  busy  revising 
their  creeds.  Already  some  of  the  religious  sects  are  em- 
barrassed, finding  that  their  ecclesiastical  paraphernalia  is 
a  handicap  in  winning  the  allegiance  of  the  modem  demo- 
crat. They  told  me  in  Italy  that  eight  thousand  priests 
and  monks,  who  during  the  war  saw  the  world  through 
their  own  eyes  and  got  a  breath  of  personal  freedom,  de- 
clared upon  their  return  to  Italy  that  they  would  never 
again  put  on  the  gown.  The  Baptist  people  have  been  at 
some  disadvantage  in  not  having  individual  ecclesiastical 
dignitaries  through  whom  they  could  voice  their  rights,  but 
in  the  absence  of  such  they  have  trained  millions  of  indi- 
vidual men  in  the  principles  of  democracy,  and  we  are 
just  coming  into  the  day  when  the  combined  voice  of  mil- 
lions of  democrats  will  swell  to  a  chorus  which  will  be 
heard  around  the  world  as  no  single  voice  can  be  heard; 
and  the  voice  of  this  multitude  will  be  in  unison  with  the 


FUTURE  RELIGION  129 

soul  of  the  race  and  the  popular  religious  ideas  of  the 
future. 

The  day  for  Baptist  diligence,  faithfulness,  sacrifice,  and 
great  missionary  activities  is  upon  us.  The  circumstances 
all  favor  us.  It  is  evident  that  the  leadership  of  the  world 
has  in  recent  months  fallen  to  this  Western  Hemisphere. 
It  is  here  that  the  world's  school  of  democracy  is  located, 
and  the  Baptist  people  are  the  best  qualified  teachers  in 
this  school.  Is  it  not  a  good  fortune  that  we  have  here 
our  greatest  numbers,  our  greatest  wealth,  and  are  able 
from  this  base  to  relate  ourselves  to  Baptist  opportunity  in 
the  new  world  order,  and  to  have  decisive  influence  in  the 
contest  of  religions  which  is  certain  to  issue  in  one  religion 
for  all  men  ? 


VI 

How  can  our  Baptist  people  best  take  advantage  of  the 
hour?  To  that  question  I  would  make  answer,  first  of 
all,  that  we  can  do  this  by  enhancing  the  value  rather  than 
cheapening  the  value  of  our  faith.  If  we  are  ashamed  of 
it  the  world  will  not  be  proud  of  it.  We  must  so  preach 
and  practice  our  faith  as  to  popularize  it.  By  our  faith- 
fulness, our  zeal,  our  sacrifice,  by  the  gifts  of  our  sons  and 
daughters  and  our  money  to  this  holy  crusade,  we  will  fix 
our  own  valuation  upon  our  faith,  prove  its  worth  to  the 
world,  and  declare  our  interest  in  the  question  of  the  world's 
final  religion.  Circumstances  incident  to  the  Great  War 
have  lifted  the  religious  question  before  the  eyes  of  the 
world  and  set  the  whole  world  thinking  about  religion 
as  men  have  not  probably  thought  of  it  in  a  century.  What 
we  do  with  our  religion  and  for  our  religion  will  be  done 
under  the  eyes  of  the  world,  and  men  will  get  their  impres- 
sion of  its  worth  by  what  we  seem  to  think  it  worth.  Men 
with  a  Christian  faith  which  meets  the  needs  of  times 
Hike  these  can  by  their  fidelity  gain  an  advantage  for  it  in  a 
day  which  formerly  they  could  not  have  gained  in  a  decade. 
If  at  such  a  time  American  Baptists,  with  the  smile  of 


130  MISSIONARY  MESSAGES 

God's  favor  upon  them  in  their  material  prosperity,  put  a 
fifteen  cent  valuation  on  their  religious  faith,  they  will  doom 
it  and  themselves. 

Political  democracy  was  found  so  precious,  or  so  objec- 
tionable a  thing,  so  worthy  to  be  fought  over  that  the  nations 
gave  to  the  contest  9,998,771  young  men  who  sleep  the  sleep 
of  heroes  on  battlefront  and  in  war  cemeteries.  Another 
20,997,551  carry  the  marks  of  their  heroism  in  their  bodies 
as  the  proud  tokens  of  their  devotion  to  democracy.  In 
material  evaluation  of  the  issue  the  world  spent  $337,946,- 
179,657  to  decide  whether  democracy  or  autocracy 
should  rule  the  world.  Baptists  will  by  the  size  of  their 
missionary  collections,  by  the  gifts  or  the  withholding  of 
their  sons  and  daughters,  and  by  the  intrepid  or  hesitating 
advance  of  their  missionary  lines  determine  what  the  world 
shall  think  of  their  interest  in  the  present  religious  issue. 

Baptist  belief  is  in  demand  on  the  religious  markets  of 
the  world  to-day.  There  never  was  such  a  demand  for 
the  faith  which  we  hold.  If  we  let  the  hawkers  of  inferior 
articles  of  faith,  the  vendors  of  patent  creeds,  and  the 
peddlers  of  heretical  cults  do  the  big  business  of  the  hour, 
we  shall  prove  that  we  are  not  faithful  stewards  of  the 
manifold  mysteries  of  God,  lose  Heaven's  favor,  and  see  the 
tides  of  opportunity  turn  at  their  flood. 

If  we  would  not  lose  advantage  when  the  contest  is 
at  the  issue,  Foreign  Missions  must  be  lifted  out  of  all 
parities  with  single  departments  of  Christian  service  and 
small  individual  Christian  enterprises,  and  receive  the  atten- 
tion and  the  support  which  is  commensurate  with  its  great 
magnitude  and  importance.  Somehow  Baptist  leaders  must 
provoke  Baptist  people  to  enlarge  their  thinking  and  their 
contributions.  A  World  Program,  a  contest  with  the  great 
religious  forces  of  the  world,  an  enterprise  which  has  already 
projected  its  lines  into  eighteen  nations  of  the  earth,  must 
command  a  larger  thought  and  support  than  Foreign  Mis- 
sions has  ever  had.  Look  at  the  amazing  figures  which 
represent  men  and  money  put  into  the  European  War. 
Wise  men  knew  that  democracy  was  imperiled,  and  that 


FUTURE  RELIGION  131' 

its  fate  would  be  determined  not  in  centuries  but  in  months, 
and  the  resources  of  the  nations  which  champion  democracy- 
were  requisitioned  and  thrown  into  the  issue.  It  was  by 
this  supreme  effort  and  sacrifice  that  the  tide  of  battle 
was  turned  and  that  democracy  was  saved.  There  is  a 
lesson  in  this  for  the  Baptists  of  the  world.  Foreign  Mis- 
sions must  have  a  fairer  proportion  of  our  gifts.  Our 
people  must  hear  about  it  from  the  pulpits,  in  the  Sunday 
School,  and  through  the  public  press.  The  circumstances 
of  the  world  are  converging  at  the  point  where  the  religious 
question  of  the  future  is  to  be  settled.  It  is  the  most 
probable  thing  that  in  a  few  years  will  be  determined  what 
rehgion  will  rule  the  future  and  what  particular  form  of 
that  religion.  If  Baptist  people  wish  their  principles  to  be 
regnant  in  the  religion  and  civilization  of  the  future,  they 
must  now  give  and  sacrifice,  pray  and  proclaim.  The  nations 
of  the  earth  are  feeling  after  democracy,  and  genuine  reli- 
gious experience  is  the  mother  of  real  democracy.  It  is 
worthy  of  any  man's  gold,  of  any  man's  life,  to  see  the 
Baptist  people  embrace  their  opportunity  now  after  long 
centuries  of  prayer,  of  persecution,  of  misinterpretation,  and 
misrepresentation.  After  long  years  of  seed  sowing  and 
patient  w^aiting,  we  have  come  to  a  supreme  hour.  May 
wisdom  and  grace  be  given  us  to  contribute  our  part,  and 
make  our  witness  decisive  in  what  is  to  be  the  religion  of 
the  future! 


CHAPTER  X 

THE    UPLIFTED   EYE* 

I  AM  here  to  speak  to  young  preachers.  I  bring  you  an 
admonition  to  cultivate  the  uplifted  eye.  I  believe 
that  this  will  have  value  for  you  as  preachers  of  the  Gospel 
of  Christ,  as  leaders  of  men  and  conductors  of  the  affairs 
of  the  Kingdom  of  Christ. 


First  of  All,  the  Uplifted  Eye  IV Ul  Correct  Temptations  to 
Which  Preachers  Are  Liable. 

The  preacher  is  tempted  to  focus  his  attention  and  his 
ministry  upon  nearer  and  narrower  interests.  He  needs  a 
corrective  for  this  temptation. 

1.  Like  all  men  preachers  are  engaged  by  temporalities. 
Sometimes  this  temptation  breaks  into  the  harmony  of 
their  spiritual  life  and  absorbs  them  in  the  midst  of  spir- 
itual needs  and  opportunities.  Jesus  found  his  disciples, 
his  chosen  preachers,  concentrating  on  something  to  eat  in 
the  presence  of  spiritual  need  and  opportunity,  and  sought 
to  break  the  spell  of  temporalities,  to  which  he  himself  was 
not  a  victim,  by  telling  them  that  h^  had  meat  to  eat  of 
which  they  knew  not  and  calling  them  to  look  upon  the 
harvest  fields  which  are  ripe  and  great  and  plenteous.  While 
they  were  thinking  in  terms  of  a  morsel  of  meat  and  a  loaf 
of  bread,  Jesus  was  thinking  of  precious  granaries.  It  is 
a  sad  fatality  in  the  preacher's  life  when  either  because  of 
the  failure  of  his  church  to  provide  for  his  temporal  neces- 
sities, or  through  his  own  inordinate  love  for  money,  he 
lapses  from  his  high  calling  to  think  too  much  about  tem- 

*  This  address  was  made  to  the  students  of  the  Southern  Bap- 
tist Theological  Seminary  and  the  colloquy  which  characterized  it 
is  retained. 

132 


THE  UPLIFTED  EYE  133 

poralitles.  I  would  lift  up  an  ideal  for  any  minister  who 
feels  himself  falling  a  victim  to  overmuch  concern  about 
things  for  the  body.  There  are  probably  young  preachers 
in  this  hall  who  will  do  well  to  examine  themselves,  making 
a  searching  inquiry  as  to  whether  they  have  already  begun 
to  think  about  good  salaries,  fine  parsonages,  and  pleasant 
circumstances.  If  in  the  pursuit  of  your  duty  God  leads 
you  into  pleasant  paths  of  Christian  service,  you  are  to  be 
congratulated,  but  I  warn  you  against  the  lure  of  worldly 
comforts  and  worldly  gain.  If  you  yield  your  life  to  this 
downward  pull,  you  will  never  reach  the  heights  of  great 
freedom  and  power  as  ministers  of  Christ. 

The  preacher  of  our  day  needs  to  be  warned  not  only 
against  the  temptation  of  temporalities  for  himself,  but 
against  keying  his  ministry  to  overmuch  concern  for  the 
temporalities  of  others.  The  true  preacher  often  walks 
among  the  poor  and  nothing  which  concerns  his  fellowmen 
is  a  matter  of  indifference  to  him.  It  is  his  duty  to  see 
that  his  own  life  and  the  life  of  Christian  men  whom  he  can 
influence  express  themselves  in  terms  of  compassion  for  the 
unfortunate.  There  is,  however,  ground  to  fear  that  many 
ministers  have  gone  beyond  the  legitimate  concern  for  the 
temporalities  of  men  and  women  among  whom  they  live 
and  concern  themselves  with  social  programs  more  than  with 
the  gospel  of  redemption.  They  have  been  cheated  out  of 
the  larger  vision  by  the  proximate  and  material  need. 

I  have  been  much  impressed  in  studying  the  Commission 
and  the  circumstances  amidst  which  it  was  delivered.  All 
about  the  Saviour  were  men  and  women  who  were  under 
hard  circumstances.  Poverty,  sickness,  and  injustice  wxre 
evident  on  every  hand.  Yet  choosing  circumstances  under 
which  to  deliver  his  final  commission  in  which  once  for  all 
he  gathered  up  those  things  which  belong  to  the  preacher's 
vocation,  he  said  not  a  word  in  his  Great  Commission  about 
ministering  to  poverty,  the  rebuke  of  injustice,  the  reform 
of  state,  but  confined  himself  to  those  things  germane  to 
propagation  of  the  gospel  of  redemption.  Does  any  one  con- 
clude that  Jesus  was  unconcerned  about  those  who  suffered 


134  MISSIONARY  MESSAGES 

from  poverty  or  injustice?  Such  a  conclusion  would  belie 
the  life  and  ministry  of  Jesus.  Jesus  was  not  indifferent  to 
anybody's  misfortune.  Nevertheless,  amidst  circumstances 
so  impressive  as  to  fix  indelibly  upon  all  his  creative  ideal  for 
his  ministers,  he  said,  "Go  ye  into  all  the  world  and  preach 
the  gospel."  He  knew  that  that  gospel  had  in  it  the  power  to 
transform  and  reform,  and  that  temporal  mal-adjustments 
would  find  their  correction  more  quickly  as  a  consequence 
of  gospel  preaching  than  by  any  other  means  which  could 
be  adopted.  Preach  the  gospel,  young  man,  and  the  world 
will  pretty  shortly  make  a  social  program  without  your  help, 
and  that  social  program  will  have  in  it  the  vitalities  which 
the  gospel  begets.  The  first  thing  fixed  by  the  Great  Com- 
mission is  a  world  missionary  program — "Go  ye  into  all 
the  world  and  preach  the  gospel"— and  after  that  come 
baptism  and  the  rest  that  is  comparatively  important. 

2.  Even  the  spiritual  needs,  the  inimediateness  of  sin  and 
sinners  with  their  legitimate  claims  upon  ministers,  some- 
times, I  fear,  cheat  preachers  out  of  the  larger  vision  which 
is  necessary  to  a  great  ministry.  Certainly  no  one  is  in 
reality  called  of  God  to  preach  the  gospel  who  is  indifferent 
to  the  sin  and  sinners  of  his  community.  He  must  in  faith- 
fulness call  the  men  and  women  of  his  community  to  re- 
pentance. He  will,  however,  get  inspiration,  quickening, 
passion,  and  gain  greatly  in  effectiveness  for  the  work  at 
his  door  if  he  cultivates  the  uplifted  eye  and  scans  the 
expansive  and  ripe  harvest  fields.  There  is  evangelistic 
value  for  the  preacher  in  a  missionary  outlook.  The  man 
who  gets  the  world  on  his  heart  will  not  lack  compassion 
for  sinners  whom  he  elbows  on  the  streets  of  his  town.  But 
just  as  a  mother  may  in  her  devotion  to  her  own  child  forget 
her  duty  to  her  neighbor's  child,  so  the  preacher  may  suffer 
the  legitimate  and  imperative  claims  of  lost  men  about  him, 
who  for  a  lifetime  have  rejected  the  gospel  of  Christ,  to 
distract  attention  from  the  millions  in  other  lands  who  have 
never  had  the  opportunity  to  accept  Him.  We  will  be  better 
evangelists  as  we  are  more  missionary. 

3.  The  narrow  views  and  sympathies  of  the  preacher's 


THE  UPLIFTED  EYE  135 

audience  sometimes  tempt  him  to  shun  missionary  studies, 
missionary  sermons,  and  missionary  collections.  It  is  a 
perilous  temptation.  By  such  a  course  the  minister  loses 
vision  and  his  people  never  get  it.  Every  preacher  has  in 
his  congregation  those  v^ho  say,  "We  have  the  heathen  at 
home,  and  until  we  meet  our  home  expenses,  we  have  noth- 
ing to  send  abroad."  There  is  little  doubt  that  many  deficits 
in  pastors'  salaries  are  due  to  derelictions  in  the  pulpit.  The 
uplifted  eye,  the  world  vision,  is  a  remedy  for  this  tempta- 
tion and  a  cure  for  such  a  situation.  That  church  which 
sets  itself  resolutely  to  the  task  of  giving  the  bread  of  life 
to  the  heathen  will  not  allow  its  pastor  to  go  hungry. 

4.  The  insistence  of  the  approximate  interests  of  the 
local  pastorate  and  the  home  departments  of  our  denomina- 
tional enterprises  shut  off  many  preachers  from  the  views 
which  lie  along  the  distant  horizons  of  the  Kingdom  of 
God.  An  English  author  asks,  "Have  you  a  window  open 
toward  the  sunset?"  and  moralizes  on  the  value  of  such  a 
window.  Surely  the  minister  of  Christ  should  have  a 
watchtower  from  which  he  can  scan  the  harvest  fields  and 
get  inspiration  from  the  whole  world  of  Christian  endeavor. 
If  the  preacher  is  not  careful,  he  will  shorten  his  observation 
in  his  round  of  church  relationships.  His  Sunday  School, 
his  prayer  meeting,  his  deacons'  meeting,  his  church  building 
enterprise  have  legitimate  claims  upon  him,  but  if  he  focuses 
attention  on  these  local  aspects  of  Kingdom  service,  he 
will  soon  lose  zest  for  them,  and  they  will  be  cheated  out 
of  the  best  service  of  which  he  is  capable  and  that  which 
the  church  in  all  its  departments  needs  for  the  full  develop- 
ment of  Christian  character. 

Even  the  denominational  councils  may  prove  a  tempta- 
tion to  the  preacher  who  does  not  form  the  habit  of 
training  his  eyes  for  the  larger  vision.  In  every  council 
of  which  he  is  likely  to  be  a  member  home  enterprises, 
are  certain  to  claim  the  largest  attention.  The  home  de- 
partments of  our  religious  work,  state  missions,  Christian 
education,  home  missions,  and  the  like,  have  larger  repre- 
sentation in  all  denominational  conferences  than  does  for- 


136  MISSIONARY  MESSAGES 

eign  missions,  although  foreign  missions  includes  all  the 
departments  of  our  religious  activities  that  are  included  in 
the  whole  home  program.  Our  programs  for  religious  meet- 
ings assign  to  single  departments  of  our  home  work  as  much 
time  as  they  do  to  all  the  departments  of  the  work  in  all 
the  rest  of  the  world.  Foreign  Missions  is  fortunate  to 
secure  an  hour  or  two  in  any  association  or  state  conven- 
tion, to  say  nothing  of  board  meetings  in  the  states  and 
associations.  This  may  perhaps,  to  a  degree,  be  necessary, 
but  it  constitutes  a  temptation  and  a  peril  for  the  minister. 
It  is  only  by  the  exercise  of  his  will  and  a  diligent  training 
of  his  eye  on  the  great  far-reaching  aspects  of  the  Christian 
task  that  he  will  avoid  classifying  foreign  missions  as  equal 
only  to  a  single  department  of  home  work  and  escape  the 
peril  of  an  altogether  too  narrow  view  of  Kingdom  service. 
He  will  keep  up  a  fight  within  his  soul  or  threaten  his  vision 
and  lose  inspiration  which  he  should  gather  from  the  wide 
whitening  fields.  It  is  not  argued  that  anything  connected 
with  the  home  work  should  be  foreign  to  the  minister,  but 
that  he  should  give  due  and  proportionate  attention  to  all 
that  his  denomination  is  doing.  The  writer  wrote  a  book 
on  Foreign  Alissions  while  he  was  a  Home  Mission  Secre- 
tary, and  whether  any  one  else  has  been  benefited  by  that 
book,  he  is  quite  certain  that  out  of  the  study  which  pro- 
duced it  there  was  gathered  inspiration  for  his  task  on  the 
home  field.  Breadth  and  balance  are  necessary  to  highest 
ministerial  usefulness,  and  in  order  to  secure  these,  he  must 
seek  to  see  the  whole  round  of  Christian  duty  in  true  per- 
spective. 

5.  The  mental  habits  of  the  preacher  may  easily  become 
a  barrier  to  the  larger  vision.  You  will  be  students  when 
you  have  quit  the  study  halls.  You  will  continue  to  study, 
or  you  will  begin  to  stunt,  but  the  study  habit  can  easily 
become  a  temptation  and  a  snare.  Those  of  you  who  have 
intellectual  ambitions  will  be  tempted  to  aspire  to  be  scholars. 
Those  of  you  who  have  oratorical  gifts  will  study  to  be 
speakers  and  orators.  Certainly  the  preacher  needs,  if  he 
can  command  them,  both  scholarship  and  oratory,  but  let 


THE  UPLIFTED  EYE  137 

me  suggest  that  if  you  want  to  be  leaders,  you  will  include 
in  your  reading  and  in  your  studies  a  generous  course  in 
missionary  literature.  There  is  no  literature  which  more 
tingles  with  life  or  throbs  with  the  spirit  of  God  than  mis- 
sionary literature.  Missionaries  and  missionary  leaders  have 
furnished  preachers  with  literature  which  is  a  telescope 
through  which  to  observe  the  harvest  fields.  Much  of  the 
literature  that  is  put  out  for  preachers  is  very  full  of  schol- 
arship, but  very  empty  of  the  gospel  and  of  inspiration  for 
Christian  activity. 

I  would  not  have  you  to  be  less  studious,  but  would  have 
you  be  wise  students.  Scholarship  will  have  great  value 
for  you  if  it  is  the  right  sort  and  you  know  what  to  do 
with  it.  I  had  a  letter  some  months  ago  from  a  friend. 
He  is  a  college  and  seminary  graduate,  a  man  of  fine  char- 
acter, and  he  has  been  a  student  of  a  certain  type.  He 
wrote  me  a  pathetic  letter.  He  said  the  people  of  his  con- 
gregation and  community  could  not  appreciate  his  scholar- 
ship, and  he  would  like  me  to  help  him  get  a  pastorate 
where  the  people  wc^e  more  congenial  with  his  intellectual 
life.  Well,  to  tell  you  the  truth,  I  did  not  appreciate  his 
scholarship  either,  although  I  appreciate  the  man  and  would 
rejoice  in  the  privilege  of  serving  him  if  at  the  same  time 
I  could  serve  the  cause  of  Christ.  What  is  scholarship  for? 
Is  it  not  to  broaden  our  knowledge  of  men  as  well  as  things, 
and  to  better  help  us  adapt  ourselves  to  the  service  of  men  ? 
That  scholarship  which  breaks  a  man's  sympathy  with  the 
most  illiterate  man  in  his  community  is  a  false  scholarship. 
A  good  and  constant  supply  of  missionary  literature  will 
save  the  scholarly  minister  from  this  temptation  and  fatal 
blunder.  God  is  in  His  world  to-day  and  Kingdom  events 
are  in  this  very  hour  crowding  each  other  in  a  most  mar- 
velous way.  Keep  in  touch  with  these,  and  you  will  be  in 
touch  with  the  men  and  the  women  of  this  generation  to 
whom  you  preach  and  whom  you  should  influence,  and 
whose  lives  you  may  expand.  You  are  called  to  be  more 
than  sermon  makers.  You  are  called  to  be  Kingdom  build- 
ers, and  if  you  are  to  be  wise  master-builders,  you  must 


138  MISSIONARY  MESSAGES 

cultivate  the  uplifted  eye,  for  the  Kingdom  has  great  ex- 
panses and  broadens  every  hour. 


II 

The  Uplifted  Eye  Has  Positive  Value  for  the  Preacher. 

It  will  not  only  save  him  from  temptations,  but  will 
furnish  him  incentives  and  bring  blessings  into  his  personal 
life  and  into  his  ministry. 

1 .  By  the  larger  vision  you  will  preserve  harmony  between 
yourselves  and  your  Textbook.  It  is  a  sad  day  for  a  preacher 
when  he  gets  out  of  harmony  with  the  Bible.  The  Bible, 
as  your  beloved  and  distinguished  teacher,  Dr.  Carver,  has 
so  convincingly  shown,  is  a  missionary  book.  It  is  a  book 
with  a  far  vision,  a  book  of  human  expanses,  a  world 
atmosphere,  an  ageless  purpose.  It  was  made  on  purpose 
to  make  big  men  as  well  as  good  men.  It  deals  with  great 
matters.  The  Infinite  God  is  its  author.  The  whole  world 
is  compassed  in  its  compassion  and  purpose.  You  cannot 
form  the  habit  of  exclusive  local  concentration  and  not 
pay  the  price  of  being  out  of  harmony  with  your  Textbook. 
If  the  preacher  is  to  keep  his  life  in  harmony  with  the 
Book,  he  must  take  his  cue  from  it  and  train  his  vision  on 
the  great  matters  with  which  it  deals.  The  objective  of 
this  Revelation  is  a  lost  world.  This  Book  is  in  quest  of 
God's  scattered  humanity,  and  the  preacher  is  to  be  in  life 
and  message  the  Book's  interpreter.  If  he  does  this  faith- 
fully, he  must  look  on  the  fields  which  are  white  unto  har- 
vest. 

2.  The  preacher  needs  atmosphere  in  his  ministry,  and 
he  will  get  this  from  the  Bible  and  the  stretching  plains  and 
highlands  which  these  harvest  fields  present.  If  his  min- 
istry is  to  be  robust,  healthful,  stimulating,  normal  and 
contagious,  he  must  find  something  which  will  save  him  from 
narrowing  the  scope  of  his  pulpit  utterances.  The  Bible 
when  interpreted  with  due  reference  to  the  mission  fields 
with  their  amplitudes  of  opportunity,  need  and  vast  con- 


THE  UPLIFTED  EYE  139 

cerns,  will  prove  a  tonic  for  the  man  who  is  self-centered, 
morbid,  introspective,  brooding,  or  selfish.  It  is  an  outward- 
looking,  upward-looking,  and  forward-looking  book.  It  is- 
full  of  characters  who  were  poor,  despised,  persecuted, 
and,  as  the  world  would  say,  unfortunate,  but  who  were 
in  the  midst  of  their  trials  robust,  uncomplaining,  and  opti- 
mistic, without  self-consciousness,  hopeful,  joyful,  trium- 
phant men  and  women.  The  men  and  women  of  this  book 
are  the  most  wholesome  of  all  historical  characters.  They 
were  missionary  heroes.  They  had  spiritual  horizons,  lofty 
and  broad  aims.  The  counterpart  of  these  men  and  women 
are  found  on  the  mission  fields  to-day, — missionaries  who 
have  forsaken  all  to  go  forth  at  the  call  of  the  world  to  give 
their  lives  to  gospel  ministry  and  human  service,  and  native 
Christians  who  have  forsaken  mothers  and  fathers  and 
houses  and  lands  and  brothers  and  sisters  for  the  Kingdom 
of  Christ's  sake,  and  yet  who  in  their  self-denyings  are 
not  conscious  that  they  have  paid  a  great  price,  so  rich 
and  full  is  their  religious  life.  From  these  men  and  women 
the  preacher  will  gain  inspiration  for  his  ministry,  and  from 
the  fields  of  their  activities  he  will  gain  atmosphere  for  his 
pulpit,  in  which  to  grow  and  develop  a  wholesome,  healthful 
ministry. 

3.  The  vision  which  is  gathered  by  the  uplifted  eye  will, 
while  helping  the  preacher,  help  his  people.  It  is  pitiful 
to  see  a  minister  who  cannot  pull  himself  together  and 
out  of  ruts  and  get  away  from  the  level  of  community 
topics,  such  as  hard  times,  and  certain  popular  amusements. 
Too  much  dwelling  on  these  matters,  however  justifiable 
their  condemnation  may  be,  will  soon  tell  on  the  size  of  a 
man's  ministry  and  develop  antagonisms  which  will  aggra- 
vate him  and  disturb  his  church.  The  man  with  missionary 
horizons  will  be  lured  to  greater  heights,  and  by  such  allur- 
ing as  will  lift  him  and  his  people  out  of  the  ruts  and 
away  from  the  things  which  he  cannot  by  much  drubbing 
cure.  There  is  more  correction  for  the  worldly  habit  in  the 
world  vision  of  Christian  service  than  in  all  reprobations 
of  this  or  that  particular  form  of  worldliness. 


I40  MISSIONARY  MESSAGES 

The  ministry  which  has  in  it  the  breadth  of  the  harvest 
fields  will  lift  men  and  women  out  of  themselves.  Some 
preachers  overdo  the  job  of  comforting  the  saints.  Their 
ministry  does  not  carry  a  wholesome  atmosphere.  The  con- 
solations of  the  gospel  of  Christ  become  maudlin  sentimen- 
tality. It  is  a  fact  that  many  of  your  dear  brethren,  and 
some  of  your  dear  sisters,  do  not  need  to  be  made  to  feel 
comfortable.  You  are  wasting  your  tender  consolations 
upon  them  when  you  ought  to  be  stirring  up  their  nests. 
The  thing  which  many  of  the  discontented  need  is  not  so 
much  your  pity  as  a  great  view  of  Christ's  work  for  the 
world  and  a  worthy  part  in  that  work.  The  uplifted  eye 
will  bring  to  you  and  your  people  the  breezes  from  the 
harvest  fields  and  the  everlasting  hills,  and  will  show  them 
vistas  of  opportunity  and  privilege  which  will  prove  a  cura- 
tive for  many  of  their  fancied  ills. 

The  preacher  who  qualifies  himself  for  service  by  this 
larger  vision  will  cure  his  people  of  peskiness  and  rid  him- 
self of  many  vexations.  The  men  and  women  who  sit 
regularly  under  the  ministry  of  a  man  with  the  missionary 
vision  and  passion  will  instinctively  catch  his  spirit,  or  else 
they  w^ill  fall  away  like  dead  flies  and  cease  to  vex  him. 
The  man  who  is  over  much  bothered  by  peskiness  in  his 
congregation  is  likely  addicted  to  a  petty  ministry.  It  is 
better  for  the  minister  to  be  without  alliances  with  men 
and  women  who  cannot  be  persuaded  to  attempt  great  things 
for  God.  The  missionary  enterprise  has,  among  the  benefits 
which  it  has  conferred  upon  modern  Christianity,  served 
to  divide  the  sheep  from  the  goats.  The  forward-looking 
men  and  women  have  disentangled  themselves  of  the  Hard- 
shells  and  anti-missionary  element,  and  in  the  adventurous 
spirit  of  the  New  Testament  marched  forward  into  the 
harvest  fields  where  the  reapers  are  singing  and  the  golden 
grain  is  being  gathered. 

4.  The  preacher  with  the  uplifted  eye  gets  inspiration  for 
his  ministry  from  another  source.  He  finds  himself  identi- 
fied with  a  great  enterprise  and  learns  that  there  is  room 
in  this  enterprise  for  the  utmost  output  of  his  powers.    As 


THE  UPLIFTED  EYE  141 

he  merges  his  ministry  into  it,  he  is  conscious  that  his  powers 
are  waxing.  In  a  field  so  vast  he  finds  that  there  is  a  task 
congenial  for  every  one,  and  this  increases  his  power  to 
enlist  others  for  Christian  service.  He  gets,  too,  the  inspira- 
tion of  great  comradeship  in  service.  His  soul  responds  to 
the  Christian  heroism  on  the  fields  of  his  observation.  He 
is  enlarged,  his  purpose  gains  in  strength,  and  his  ministry 
shortly  evidences  a  new  power.  He  gathers  incentive  and 
purpose,  acquires  breadth  of  sympathy  and  knowledge,  and 
speaks  with  more  passion,  more  confidence,  more  authority, 
and  more  convincingly. 

5.  There  is  still  another  reason  why  young  preachers 
should  begin  early  to  cultivate  the  uplifted  eye.  The  preacher 
is  an  adventurer,  an  itinerant.  I  presume  that  it  is  ordained 
by  heaven  that  he  should  be  an  itinerant,  but,  if  not,  it  is 
ordained  by  the  deacons  that  the  average  preacher  shall 
be  a  man  who  pitches  his  moving  tent.  He  has  no  abiding 
city.  Young  men,  you  had  better  carry  your  observations 
and  familiarities  beyond  the  community  to  larger  fields  and 
into  larger  interests,  because  the  Lord  or  a  church  confer- 
ence may  thrust  you  unexpectedly  into  these.  The  place 
that  knows  you  now  may  shortly  know  you  no  more  forever. 
You  do  not  want  to  go  into  a  strange  land.  Then  familiarize 
yourself  with  what  lies  beyond  your  present  parish.  Then, 
too,  the  ministry  which  is  lived  under  the  inspiration  of  the 
larger  vision  awakens  your  dormant  powers,  calls  out  your 
resources,  rewards  the  expenditure  of  your  energies,  also 
prepares  you  for  eventualities.  If  under  the  spell  of  this 
vision  the  Lord  thrusts  you  into  other  fields  of  labor,  you 
will  go  into  these  with  a  sense'  of  equality  for  whatever 
comes,  with  a  certain  calm  sense  of  masterfulness  which  will 
not  desert  you.  If  you  are  capable  of  a  great  ministry, 
this  is  the  road  to  it,  and  a  great  ministry  is  to  be  chosen 
above  great  scholarship  or  skillful  homiletics,  or  gorgeous 
rhetoric,  or  flaming  oratory.  It  will  do  more  to  take  care 
of  you  in  the  midst  of  new  experiences  than  all  of  these 
combined.  The  minister  has  use  for  all  of  the  above  gifts 
and  attainments,  but  they  are  the  technique  of  his  art  which 


142  MISSIONARY  MESSAGES 

must  be  heightened  and  forgotten  in  the  inspiration  of  a 
great  vision,  and  thus  made  effective  in  the  performance 
of  a  great  task  and  the  achievement  of  great  triumphs. 

6.  The  minister  with  this  vision  cannot  be  long  dis- 
couraged. In  moments  when  the  battle  seems  to  turn  against 
him  at  that  part  of  the  line  where  he  is  stationed,  he  will 
take  a  new  look  at  the  whole  battle  front  and  his  courage 
and  hope  will  revive.  He  will  take  a  new  grip  on  his  min- 
istry and  new  hope  for  the  cause  of  Christ  as  he  catches  new 
inspiration  from  the  heroisms  of  others.  The  man  of  vision 
can  never  despair  of  the  ultimate  outcome  of  his  ministry 
and  the  ministry  of  his  brothers.  There  is  enough  happen- 
ing any  day  on  the  mission  fields  to  impart  hope  and  cheer 
to  your  Blue  Monday. 

7.  But  the  upward  look  will  for  some  of  you  bring 
into  view  your  life-task.  It  is  this  that  concerns  me  par- 
ticularly in  bringing  these  matters  to  the  attention  of  the 
men  and  women  of  this  Seminary  and  Training  School. 
Young  men,  have  you  made  the  larger  survey?  Have  you 
tried  to  appraise  the  claims  of  the  world  upon  you  ?  Some 
of  you  have  already  named  yourselves  ^Volunteers."  For 
this  I  give  thanks.  In  some  quiet  hour  you  lifted  up  your 
eyes,  you  looked  on  the  fields,  you  listened  for  the  voice  of 
God,  and  in  the  vision  of  that  hour  you  heard  the  voice  of 
Macedonia  and  gathered  that  God  had  called  you.  You 
answered  with  your  life  that  call.  May  it  not  be  that  others 
of  you  here  would  have  made  a  like  decision  if  you  had 
lifted  up  your  eyes  and  looked  on  the  fields  white  and  great 
and  plenteous?  Will  you  not  give  the  call  of  the  foreign 
mission  fields  their  due  and  a  faithful  consideration? 


Ill 

The  Urgency  of  the  Mission  Fields  at  Present 

I  want  in  these  closing  moments  to  ask  you  to  think  of 
these  matters  in  the  light  of  present  world  circumstances. 
There  are  peculiar  reasons  why  ministers  should  heed  the 


THE  UPLIFTED  EYE  143 

admonition  of  the  Saviour  to  his  preacher  disciples  at  Jacob's 
well  in  this  hour  which  finds  us  face  to  face  in  this  room. 
It  is  true  as  never  before  that  the  fields  are  white.  There 
is  much  in  present  world  conditions  to  urge  you  to  lift  up 
your  eyes. 

1.  I  would  have  you  think  of  the  harvests  which  are 
being  gathered  by  other  leaders.  Through  this  Seminary 
other  men  have  passed  into  the  waiting  harvest  fields  a  little 
in  advance  of  you.  These  are  gathering  sheaves  unto  life 
eternal.  Think  of  the  situation  at  home.  No  evangelical 
Christian  denomination  ever  made  in  a  single  twelve  months 
such  record  as  Southern  Baptists  made  last  year.  Can 
you  realize  it  ?  Two  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  responsible 
individuals  baptized  by  white  Baptist  preachers  of  the  South 
last  year  on  voluntary  personal  acknowledgment  of  Christ  as 
Saviour !  A  quarter  of  a  million  responsible  church  members 
added  to  our  great  numbers  in  a  single  twelve  months! 
There  is  no  duplicate  record  in  the  annals  of  Christendom. 
These  converts  were  not  made  by  the  preachers,  but  preach- 
ers went  forth  into  the  harvest  fields  and  these  came  to 
baptismal  waters  and  to  church  membership  on  their  own 
volitions.  The  fields  were  ripe.  These  250,000  responsible 
individuals  were  not  drafted.  They  were  volunteers.  They 
are  not  the  result  of  infant  coercion,  but  they  are  the 
trophies  of  the  gospel  of  Christ  proclaimed  by  those  who 
love  that  gospel  and  love  to  tell  it.  In  the  Middle  Ages 
there  were  military  conquests  in  Europe  which  made  men 
and  women  unwilling  subjects  of  ecclesiastical  hierarchies, 
but  these  men  and  women,  boys  and  girls,  throughout  our 
Southland,  of  their  own  choice,  turned  away  from  their 
sins  to  the  Saviour  and  chose  to  w^alk  in  paths  of  obedience 
to  Him.  This  is  but  an  indication  of  how  ripe  the  harvest 
fields  at  home  are. 

But  uplift  your  eyes  and  look  beyond  the  evangelistic 
work  of  your  state,  beyond  the  South,  and  beyond  America. 
Scan  the  world  fields,  and  you  will  get  a  vision  which  is 
no  less  thrilling  and  heartening.  The  truth  is,  in  propor- 
tion to  the  number  of  leaders,  there  is  greater  gleaning  on 


144  MISSIONARY  MESSAGES 

the  mission  fields  which  we  call  heathen  and  papal  than  on 
the  home  fields.  Missionaries  in  China  and  South  America 
are  baptizing  more  converts  per  man  than  are  the  12,000 
preachers  in  the  South,  so  ripe  are  the  fields.  Baptist 
preachers  in  Hungary,  Roumania,  and  Russia,  in  tattered 
coats,  in  bare  feet,  gaunt  and  hungiy,  are  abroad  in  the 
harvest  fields  turning  multitudes  to  Christ.  The  fields  are 
ripe  already  to  harvest,  but  out  yonder  the  reapers  are  few. 

2.  The  extremity  of  the  w^orld  without  God  and  without 
the  gospel  will  impress  those  who  look  on  the  fields.  The 
moral  foundations  of  society  are  shaken.  The  human  expe- 
dients have  failed.  Men  are  at  their  wit's  end.  Humanity 
is  engulfed  in  universal  sorrow.  The  terrors  of  hell  have 
got  hold  on  many,  and  men  are  falling  back  on  God  or  into 
despair.  I  cannot  escape  the  recurring  thought  that  men 
are  about  to  come  to  themselves,  and  in  sheer  exhaustion 
call  on  God  as  their  only  hope  and  refuge.  It  is  true  that 
sin  abounds,  but  by  its  abounding  it  may  signify  duty  and 
opportunity.  It  is  often  illustrated  that  where  sin  abounds 
grace  much  more  abounds.  Sin  often  marks  a  stage  of 
human  desperation  and  makes  ready  for  the  day  of  repent- 
ance and  a  field  for  the  harvesters.  Sin  is  to-day,  I  divine, 
defeating  itself.  It  has  by  going  its  length  proved  its  futility 
and  revealed  the  necessity  of  a  remedy.  Certainly  when 
Satan  is  busy,  the  servants  of  the  Lord  should  be  quickened 
to  new  zeal,  faithfulness  and  courage. 

3.  There  are  certain  conditions  in  the  world  which  seem 
to  be  favorable  for  the  effectual  insinuation  of  the  gospel 
into  the  hearts  of  men.  There  is  among  men  and  nations  a 
longing  for  friendship,  for  reliable  and  unfailing  alliance. 
Insincerity  and  secret  diplomacy  have  destroyed  confidence. 
Instance  Russia.  Where  will  the  people  of  Russia  find 
refuge?  Where  will  they  find  support  for  their  fainting 
hearts  and  that  which  will  revive  their  crushed  spirits?  I 
do  not  wonder  at  the  tidings  which  are  escaping  through 
underground  channels  of  souls  among  the  masses  in  Russia 
seeking  for  God,  and  the  quick  and  large  response  which 
ministers  of  hope  are  having  to  their  testimony. 


THE  UPLIFTED  EYE  145 

4.  Then,  too,  we  have  reached  a  harvest  period  in  the 
work  which  we  have  been  doing.  We  have  passed  the 
experimental  stage  in  missionary  work.  We  have  gone  be- 
yond the  initial  steps.  Hostility  is  fast  disappearing  on  all 
the  mission  fields.  We  have  reaped  the  firstfruits,  and  these 
are  but  an  earnest.  Our  schools  are  now  beginning  to 
produce  results.  They  have  sent  forth  men  and  women  with 
Christian  experiences  and  nurtured  in  Christian  ideals. 
Native  churches  have  been  established.  The  Word  of  God 
has  been  translated  and  a  literature  has  been  created.  De- 
cisive victories  have  been  won,  and  impregnable  positions 
have  been  taken.  Influential  natives  now  reenforce  the 
missionaries.  A  comradeship  has  been  provided  on  the 
mission  fields  in  the  increasing  number  of  volunteers  and 
appointments.  Heathen  priests,  people,  and  government 
officials  now  recognize  the  permanence  and  persistence  of 
Christian  missions. 

Opposition  and  indifference  are  giving  way  at  home. 
The  old  methods  which  deceivers  once  used  to  hurt  this 
great  enterprise  are  obsolete  and  falsifiers  of  Foreign  Mis- 
sions are  discredited.  The  enterprise  is  well  organized. 
It  has  the  backing  of  rich  men  and  strong  churches,  as 
well  as  the  prayers  of  a  multitude  of  women  and  the  poor. 
The  cause  on  the  mission  fields  is  led  by  some  of  the 
brightest,  most  cultured  and  capable  men  and  women  our 
schools  have  been  able  to  turn  out,  and  these  are  backed 
by  an  increasing  solidarity  in  the  home  forces.  Foreign 
Missions  is  well  organized.  The  Foreign  Mission  Board 
of  the  Southern  Baptist  Convention  is  one  of  the  few  insti- 
tutions in  the  city  where  it  is  located  that  does  business 
running  into  millions  annually.  We  have  recently  secured 
an  office  building  which  sets  us  in  a  permanent  place  among 
the  enterprises  of  the  city,  the  money  for  this  building  being 
given  by  two  friends,  the  steadfast  friends  of  Foreign  Mis- 
sions and  the  supporters  of  this  enterprise  on  the  field  as 
well  as  at  home.  The  Foreign  Mission  Board  has  as  good 
credit  as  any  business  concern  in  Richmond,  and  a  credit 
which  is  far  more  extensive  than  the  credit  of  any  firm 


146  MISSIONARY  MESSAGES 

in  our  city.  The  Foreign  Mission  Board's  Letter  of  Credit 
is  as  good  around  the  world  as  a  draft  on  a  New  York  inter- 
national banking  corporation.  These  are  but  the  material 
aspects  of  a  great  spiritual  enterprise,  but  they  do  indicate 
that  Foreign  Missions  has  passed  the  experimental  stage, 
and  that  it  is  securely  guaranteed  by  the  purposes  and  re- 
sources of  Southern  Baptists.  The  young  man  or  young 
woman  who  goes  out  to  represent  Southern  Baptists  on 
the  foreign  mission  field  has  a  financial  and  moral  backing 
that  does  not  follow  any  commercial  traveler  into  the  Far 
East  or  in  search  of  South  American  trade. 

Conclusion 

I  must  conclude  these  remarks,  but  in  this  closing  moment 
I  wish  to  come  to  close  quarters  with  you,  my  young  friends. 
I  did  not  come  to  speak  before  you  but  to  speak  to  you. 
I  have  not  cared  to  make  a  speech,  but  I  have  earnestly 
desired  to  have  you  help  me  make  a  great  Christian  enter- 
prise, and  to  make  it  vastly  stronger  and  more  fruitful.  I 
am  not  concerned  to  win  your  applause.  I  would  win  you. 
I  would  speak  to  you  individually.  I  have  come  to  ask  you 
to  look  upon  the  harvest  fields  ripe  and  plentiful,  and  if  I 
could,  to  make  these  so  alluring,  to  show  you  so  convincingly 
their  promise  and  their  need,  as  to  make  you  a  missionary 
volunteer.  I  am  emboldened  to  make  this  appeal  because  I 
do  not  think  you  will  ever  regret  the  decision  if  you  make 
it  here  to-day.  In  Pekin  some  months  ago  I  met  a  Miss 
Williams  in  the  home  of  a  veteran  missionary.  I  found  her 
the  life  of  a  circle  of  young  people  and  a  refreshing  member 
of  a  circle  which  included  older  folks.  She  talked  and 
laughed  and  sang  and  played,  just  as  the  bright  young 
woman  does  in  the  drawing  room  at  home.  I  inquired  of 
her  the  reason  for  her  presence  in  China,  and  she  told  me 
her  story.  She  said  that  her  father  was  a  victim  of  the 
Boxers  in  the  uprising,  that  when  they  had  hacked  his  body 
to  pieces  and  he  was  nigh  unto  death,  he  said  to  a  friend  who 
found  him,  "Take  my  boy  to  America  and  educate  him  to 


THE  UPLIFTED  EYE  147 

be  a  missionary  in  China/'  The  boy  was  just  a  little  fellow 
and  his  sister  was  small.  They  were  sent  to  America.  She 
had  gone  through  the  schools  here,  and  she  said,  *T  have 
felt  that  if  that  was  my  father's  wish  for  my  brother,  it 
would  certainly  be  his  wish  for  me,  and  I  am  going  back 
to  my  father's  station  to  witness  for  Christ  among  those 
who  slew  him."  I  admonish  you  not  to  find  any  exception 
in  this  case  nor  contradiction  in  her  merriment  and  her  mis- 
sionary purpose.  Wherever  I  have  gone  on  mission  fields 
in  any  land,  I  have  found  the  missionaries  wholesome, 
happy,  purposeful,  and  glad  of  their  decision  to  be  mission- 
aries. 


THE  END 


'"iiffipifi1iiiIi''MM.'S9if.^'  Seminary  Libraries 


1    1012  01234  3630 


Date  Due 

1 

M  ' 

JA29'53 

j 

1 

1 

1 

i 

i 

^ 

i 

i   Hi 


I  ! 


i 


